If it is for Media Files only UPnP could be an alternative to smb.

openSUSE

Firefox -> Zen Browser

Yea Its not perfect, but hopefully on the way

Just use spacebar instead

Or if you want to use the new drive, clone your drive to the new one(using clonezilla for example)

https://eylenburg.github.io/android_comparison.htm This is a nice overview

I allways symlink(ln -s) some folders from my HDD(Pictures, Movies, Documents, Music) since i dont want to have all my home folder on my slow HDD. May this is an Option for you.

I will allways go for used Thinkpads. Best value

From shell

winget install --id=Mozilla.Firefox -e

For example

I didnt watch the full Video, but all games i saw in the clip are native Windows games with no offical port for linux

But Windows is usally the system the games are optimized for. Its impressiv how well proton/wine work these days :)