Debian stable has been my solution to the endless fiddling for over a decade. But it won't work for you if there's some very specific difficult-to-use-with-Linux thingamajig you need.

It’s not only endless fiddling you can do but occasinally you have to do as well.

This may not be true at all, depending on the distribution you use. You should ask a Linux user who does work similar to yours. I haven't had to "fiddle" for years, though I probably subconsciously avoid using software/hardware which I suspect may cause trouble.