Re Microsoft in general. I had to install Powershell on Linux recently to get a work related task done. It was packaged on the Arch User Repository, so easily done.
Got the task done and went to uninstall Powershell and realised there that the installed size was 186 MB. Checked the installed size of Linux-zen kernel and modules: 143 MB. So this tiny MS command-line utility was heftier than the kernel and drivers for all supported hardware. How do they even manage that?
I’ve had to learn heavy duty bashing for work, and happily did take the plunge. However, they also had me learn PHP and I’ll drop this as a hook and line for OP: you can do shell-script duties with PHP also, and once you hit your head on sed enough times, I hope you remember me telling this. All that string manipulation is much nicer with PHP functions, and for running shell commands there is shell_exec(). :)
I recently discovered kmscon: a hardware accelerated utf-8 & emoji capable replacement for the standard Linux console. Put that on.
Back in the day: Rescue On Fractalus, Cholo and Mercenary were all pioneering 3D games that really took me away. Also Ultima V was a masterpiece of immersion.
Now: Beat Saber. One can measure the immersion with a heart rate monitor :D
grim + slurp ftw. On my system mod+ctrl+s -> select area by drawing a box -> screenshot saved as shot.png in the Downloads directory where even sandboxed apps can read it. Next shot just overwrites the previous one.