Timeshift. Easy to set up. Easy to use, only takes a couple of minutes to 're-set' your system back, if you break it. If you want just to backup files, documents etc then Cron. I use both. They are standard Linux programs and easy to use

Like you i switched from about 30 years of windows to Linux almost three years ago, Ubuntu, Mint, Manjaro, Endeavour before ending up with Arch which I find perfect. I also have two PCs running Debian for HomeAssitant setups in two homes but I don't like Debian I sometimes use my wife's Windows setup for Garmin Express as that's the only windows program that I need. So keep on going, Windows is not missed,

For note taking, Joplin is pretty good, in fact I went from Simplenote to Evernote (over kill and not free) to Joplin using Dropbox for the syncing (syncing is done by Joplin, so you don't need a 'syncing' app) between my PCs, all Linux and my Android phone. Simple to set up and free. I do not use it as a Journal as that is extremely poor, but for notes, it's perfect

Though to late to help you, when you get it working again, install Timeshift, so that instead of faffing around to try and suss out what went wrong, you just start timeshift -- restore from the console and a couple of minutes later you'll have your working setup back. It's saved my bacon quite a few times in the last couple of years, especially when you can't login to your DE.

Grab a second SSD or HD, that way, keep windows in one as it will be probably be supplied with the computer. Add Linux to the other disk, Debian maybe, EndeavourOs much better. ThNo dual boot. And when starting to computer just choose which disk you want to use (F8 or F12 often) and later if and when ready, you wipe the windows HD and use it for backups

I went from Manjaro to Arch. Installed by command line (took a few tries to get it done... ) I tried their installer but it wasn't very good. Have also run Endeavour on a second pc for a while but I prefer pure Arch.

Use timeshift, install it, just chose where you want the backups to be installed, preferably a second HD or SD Flash. Chose when like once a day, week at start up for instance and forget it. Then if you screw up your Linux, just start in console mode, timeshift --restore and five mins later your up and running.

If you want just your data to be copied, then Cron

Both are standard Linux programs, often already installed depending on what Linux you have

Use timeshift, easy peasy to set up. It's saved my bacon a couple of times now, only last week, when the kernel 6.4 came out, but my old nvidia driver wouldn't work with it. You just jump into tty, run timeshift --restore and chose a previous backup, takes all of ten minutes. I have it doing a back up every day to a second HD, keeping the last five, doesn't take up much space. I don't think there's an easier option than that.

I use timeshift, on Arch and a Debian setup . It's simple to set up, I do a automatic snapshot once a day, so if something breaks, just boot into tty and restore the previous day's snapshot, takes about five minutes. Not sure why you say ext4 doesn't work as it does. Haven't tried the other programs that you talked about

They often do some promotions, got mine at about half price

I don't use Trillium, tried once Obsidian but it's not free. Have you tried Joplin, it's free works extremely well with Dropbox or NextCloud for syncing between téléphone and the PC. For note taking its extremely good

I've used Joplin for years now before was Evernote. I like it because it's open source and the syncing option is built in, exemple either to Dropbox or NextCloud (I use both these options, DB only because I have a free option of 12gB otherwise I would use just NC) The syncing is painless as as I said built-in. It's not a pretty app, fairly plain, but it works perfectly, on my android and Linix PCs, Arch and Debian. I did try Obsidian once. It's pretty, but not being open source put me of. Try it again, takes minutes to set up, as again open source and works well

It sounds like the best option would be a dual boot, Linux for everything except games and when you want to play just boot into Windows. If you do this i would strongly suggest a two HD set up, one for windows and one for Linux, for two reasons, if you don't like Linux then you still have the original windows setup, two Windows will at one moment wipe the dual boot grub and you'll 'lose' the Linux startup, unless you have one OS per Hard Disk. I don't game anymore. Like you I also have an old card Gtx760 🤣🤣

Yes i know, i tried it about two times, but found it extremely poor, was easier to install it by 'hand'

Diaro sends me a notification and the end of the Day, reminding me to write something.

I keep a diary using Diaro on my android phone. I started a long time ago in note books, but as even I can't alway read my own writing, switched to typing. I don't write much, mostly rubbish, what I do find useful is the ability to search and find things, 'repaired the fridge' 'changed the battery in the smoke alarm', 'had so and so around for dinner' , 'bought this and that' .... It's only for myself, do when I'm dead and gone it will just disappear like myself

It's just that Diaro and others diary apps are setup so that you see the date, title, tags, just like a paper version, again, something that you can't easily do in Joplin

Are you in windows or Linux?

Garmin Epix Pro gen 2, by far the best, as like the 7x but with an OLED screen. A real fitness watch, rather than a apple smart watch

The Arch install is much lighter, Endeavour like many other linuxes, installs programs that you may or may not require. I prefer adding programd when I require them

Not that I remember

Joplin is really good for notes, (I tried uploading a Screenshot for you, but keep getting errors) , how and what to do when installing a Linux for instance. With it's sub categories. But for me at least it's useless for a daily diary use. I've been using Diaro on my phone for years now for my personal journal, as it's perfect for noting what do on the day, though I would like to have another option without my data being stored with them, syncing straight to my Dropbox or NextCloud for instance

They must have got this right finally. I tried that years ago, it took hours, where as Dropbox took a couple of seconds. And as I only use DB for that now. Never bothered changing it

Try this journalctl -xb -u cronie. It will show you any errors

Exactly the same for me, 26Hb, no Swap installed, never had a freeze or a problem in the two years using Arch

Until a couple of days yi would have said Liftoff but I must admit Boost seems slightly better, the pro version, the free version with ads is awful, but at only 3.50 euros that's not expensive and worth the money

I use NordVPN, works well with Arch, no gui just terminal, only about three times to get it logged, to the country you want to use, and running

How about Cron? If it's just for copying your files / data, super easy to set up and extremely rapid, it doesn't do snapshots, it's just a simple 'copy my file to another place', but it works 👍