Choosing the right Linux distro

Questions
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I want to try Linux but I need some advices for my specific case. My priorities will be privacy and gaming (in that order).

First, I don’t want an OS that tries to ping or send any kind of information anywhere, not even during the installation process. This also means that I should be able to (easily) disable automatic checks for updates from the very start, both from the OS and any other software that comes preinstalled with it.

After that, I need a Firewall able to block any connection, both with and without the need of a DNS, and then I should be able to whitelist specific processes to connect (only) to specific servers that I manually choose. The OS should not be able to bypass that Firewall (if possible), nor any other software (let aside virus or the like). A Router is not an option here.

Another point is that I want to minimize the information that any application could read from the machine, so even those processes that will be able to connect somewhere should not be able to share much to start with. I was thinking in some kind of Sandbox, to also avoid them sharing data with other applications that will be able to connect to internet.

I read something about a Linux limitation in the PulseAudio sound server that, if an application is able to reproduce sounds that you can hear, it will also be able to access the data coming from the microphone too (correct me if I’m wrong), but as fas a I know, PipeWire is an alternative that prevents this, and I need an OS that does not have this limitation, one way or another.

Privacy aside, I want to play games (free of anti-cheat systems) desinged only for Windows. As far as I know a lot of them works on Linux, right? and if not, I was thinking on using a Virtual Box with Windows inside (with no internet connection), but I don’t know how well that will work.

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I’m happy to see you wanting to give Linux a try! Those sound like pretty standard requirements, and in my opinion, Fedora fits all of them.

AFAIK, Fedora doesn’t have any telemetry. Opt-in telemetry has been considered, but it seems that nothing came out of it. You can disable automatic checks for updates.

Fedora comes with firewalld, but if you want more control over your connections, there’s OpenSnitch. With it, you can restrict Internet access to any application requesting it.

For sandboxing, I’m thinking using Flatpak and then tweaking permissions with Flatseal. You can also prevent apps from using PulseAudio, and I believe Fedora switched to PipeWire a while ago.

Most games work well, especially single-player ones without anti-cheat. You can check how your games run on ProtonDB. Even then, most titles should work completely fine with Wine. Using launchers like Heroic or Lutris makes the process trivial. Using a Windows VM is good for things that don’t run well, just make sure you have enough resources. For beefy games, you can even do a GPU passthrough (most tutorials will probably target QEMU KVM with virt-manager instead of VirtualBox).

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Start easy and don’t make your life too complicated at first.
Linux is quite complex already, yet very private by default too.

You could achieve that I guess but it kinda is a thing to fetch the latest updates + proprietary drivers etc.
One thing to understand here is that Linux is not like Windows, it by defaults doesn’t really cares who you are and what you want to spend your money on.
Hence, even when it reaches out to the Internet, it is not for the same purposes as a typical Windows would do. It’s for common-sense things that are needed/useful to you. Very different mindset that is maybe new (but refreshing?), hence not sure if there is a need to fight it out of the box.

Achievable, yet you will lose a lot on security if there is something with a security vulnerability. Or just cool features from the apps you do like (assuming you only install those).

For the firewall, OpenSnitch or ufw can be used. Even tho, it is indeed more of a router’s job to handle that part properly.

Sounds like an advanced need for a beginner.
Not sure about other solutions but then, you’re kinda tied to things like QubesOS. Not sure it is worth the effort/drawbacks. Moreover, what are your needs here?
App A won’t be broadcasting your entire life to App B out of the box, especially if running things in Wayland (assuming they’re not privacy invasive apps of course).

Maybe I’m the only one that haven’t heard about this one but again, why do you need this?
Do you have a built-in mic and worried about speaking about very private things?
I had a harder time getting Linux to work with a mic at all, it oversharing is definitely not a huge concern. At the same time, I do like my device with a physical switch off for those or just removing the cable.

Games are not specifically designed with Windows-only in mind.
That’s just the state of the market (more demand there as of today) yet, they can definitely work just fine on Linux too, nobody is doing evil things for those poor Linux enthusiasts themselves.
As said above, ProtonDB is a good resource and most solo games will work just fine on there.

Overall, keep your life easy and use the distros recommended by PG or even better: have a dual boot with 1 very secure for work and the other one for games like Bazzite.
Don’t put the bar too high for your first experience with Linux, you might have quite a lot on your plate already.

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