Installing Pop_OS! or Ubuntu takes about an hour to 90 minutes (including setting up eg Steam, your preffered browser, etc). You'll want to run it as a live USB for a bit first to make sure there's driver support. IME much faster to install and update than MS Windows.

If the hardware you buy doesn't support Linux use then it can be a crap shoot (down to luck). Why people blame their Linux distro for that I don't really understand.