Windows Defender at work...see attachment

Then you ditch Windows.
In any case you would lose access to some apps, so at least you should go with the system that is not painful to use.

You can only use kernel versions that nvidia has been complied for if you want good GPU performance. For example, you would probably not be able to run the 5.12-rc6 kernel with fully accelerated nvidia graphics at this point, and you might have issues if you decide to try any of the various kernel forks that are out there (often with experimental features that you might be interested in trying). Similarly, you won't be able to run something like linux-next with accelerated nvidia graphics.

There's also the issue with kernel taint; upstream developers can't fix a bug in closed source code, so I believe you need to have a kernel without proprietary modules if you want upstream to treat your bug report seriously. (This taint is shown in the oops/panic message.) Furthermore, if the bug is in the nvidia kernel driver, only nvidia can provide a fix; with an open source driver, anybody knowledgeable about that part of the kernel's code would be able to (attempt to) fix it.

(For anybody who doesn't know, a linux kernel panic is the equivalent of a blue screen in modern windows.)

Another argument is that there's DRM in nvidia cards/drivers (the card is physically capable of certain things that are disabled by the driver), so from a strict anti-DRM stance (one that's strict enough to reject Windows), one would want to reject nvidia's proprietary driver as well.

Reminds me of what I experienced with my Raspberry Pi when still using an SD card; spinning rust is working much better here.

(Thinking of maybe getting or adapting an SSD to use USB to improve things even further.)
The devkit for some obscure embedded system, perhaps?

Or a game that only supports Linux (I have seen at least one game of that sort on itch.io) and needs the GPU.

Main questions were if it pops up prompts whenever new connections not covered by rules are attempted, how informative said prompts are and whether you can have your answers to them only apply to that particular attempt and not have a rule (of whatever scope or duration) be created at all.

wrong answer

you just use win10 and forget linux for another decade

No, thank you, I do not want to use your obsolete commercial product.
I’m going to stay with a real operating system instead, one that I can actually use to get things done.

if a game is linux only then it probably doesn't even worth the time to waste on it especially if it is from itch.io
what obsolete ?:D oh jesus
ofc it is a commercial product, people work hard to make a product to sell it , so you dont buy anything or what? :D
so windows is not a real os ?:D

ah linux fans ...

I only buy good quality products.
Windows does not qualifies. I would not get it even if it were available for free.

If Windows were any good, Microsoft would not have to go through deals with all hardware manufacturers to pre-install it on every computer available for sale. The only people using Windows are the ones who are forced to use it.

I feel like you're going about this in reverse order; rather than do it that way, why not apply a hosts file and filter all connections, only opening ones you need to function on a service or program basis? Cause I'm not sure if what you're asking for is either useful or doable.

2 hours ago: Bravo, you outdid your_self ( <- see what I've done here? wink wink)

Do you use the WIndows 10 thing, Grub, or Refind?

I'm almost certain it's Grub (sorry, I always leave the OS selection screen pretty fast, so I don't look much at it)

Linux can be good if it is fully compatible with your hardware and if you can survive with partial microsoft office compatibility

The only explanation needed should be because I don't want and won't do it that way.
And I'd be going with an entirely new OS and many new programs, I wouldn't know what I'd need, it'll be a lot of trying to see what doesn't work if I block it to reduce connections to a minimum, and get rid of what doesn't work without connections I don't deem necessary.
But also, the popups mean notifications in real time of what tries to connect and where just then, can't have those without them.
So it's not just useful, but absolutely necessary, non-negotiable in any way, for me. Which makes the answer to whether it's doable on Linux be the same as that to whether I may actually end up on Linux and not find myself forced kicking and screaming on Win 10 and cursing computers every day because of it.