Broken

Proper power management on my laptop is the biggest one. There are many software applications that don't support Linux that I would like to use.

There's a lot of info in these comments and a ton of it is good. I will say that the best advice is to boot from a USB and try out a system for a bit. You can easily swap around that way without a commitment. I will also say that my opinion is to start with Mint. It's similar enough to windows in layout/workflow to feel familiar and is "boring" in a stable, easy to use way. Use it and learn Linux. I say learn, because it doesn't matter what the OS looks like as much as how it works, and Linux (any flavor) works differently than windows. Learn those idiosyncrasies and then of you decide you want to try something else then you're up to speed to move on and judge a different system with a baseline.

The original idea is exactly for identification (just not secure ones). Think of it like writing your name on the inside of your jacket or have a name tag on your luggage.