Not really a guide but for starters you should check whether your hardware will actually run the new OS or not. I suggest start with ISO image burned to USB drive and boot your laptop from there, it will ask for options so pick live iso, this way it will not touch your HD unless you tell it to install full version. You basically run full OS from USB to test so it will not be fast. You can get light Ubuntu Budgie desktop to test - https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-budgie/releases/23.10.1/release/ubuntu-budgie-23.10.1-desktop-amd64.iso It gives you kinda macos feel without apple crap...lol Then read/learn about it, learn some more (actually really read the docs, they pretty decent) and see if that's something you like...