New Linux user seeks distro with as much hardware control options as possible

[SesameStreetThug]

You shouldnt have to worry too much about hardware setup with your current hardware.

On the same line, if there are Linux drivers for the MB on the site for the MB, would those be the same drivers that are added into the distros, since Ubuntu and Mint have the AMD drivers added in with the install? Or do any of the hardware vendors have drivers that add more functionality into graphical controls?

I have the same line of questions for the GPU, and in this case the RX580, for which I did see that there are Linux drivers for Ubuntu on AMD’s site.

Linux is not Windows, there are only rarc cases where you have to manually install drivers, everything should be built into the OS and not require driver discs etc, this goes for your motherboard as well as your AMD GPU.

Considering audio can be in multiple formats, and the outputs can be speakers plugged into the back of the MB, jacks on the front of the PC case, or the HDMI out for speakers in the monitor, and can be stereo or a myriad of channel configs, is there any software drivers that let you see the details of what’s happening with sound?

This wouldnt be specific to the audio driver used but would be part of ALSA, the backend which Linux uses for sound. There are different programs that should give you some information, look into things like PulseAudio Manager.

It is also important to know that audio on Linux is not monolithic, there are multiple audio subsystems that can be used, but most often you will be using PulseAudio by default.

I also need to be able to mount mechanical NTFS drives since these need to go back and forth between Windows and Linux. This means I need to be able to mount and unmount on the fly. I’m assuming there isn’t much difference between the distros for this.

This should be fine as long as the drive doesn’t contain the Windows hibernation file, otherwise it will only let you mount it Read-Only.

Distros are a bit of a trap that new users fall into, the differences between them tend to be much exaggerated. The differences you are actually seeing tends to be between whatever desktop environment each distro uses, and many distros will let you pick. If you’re really interested in choosing a distribution, take a look at this thread: So you're looking for a Linux Distro?

Most of the smaller issues youre having, like GUI control and screen tearing will exist everywhere but can be solved agnostic of what distro you are running. Search for threads here on any problems you have ( screen tearing is a common issue that many have had to solve ) or make a more directed #helpdesk thread once you’ve picked an OS.