My all-time personal favorite is probably MarkText. I’m actually surprised no one else has mentioned it; knowing it has garnered almost 50k stars on GitHub.

I really like it for its realtime preview and support for mathematical expressions. Though, it’s wonderfully feature-rich; so please check out its README for the full list.

Unfortunately, it (currently) doesn’t enjoy as much development as it previouslu did. Which has ultimately led me to pivot to ghostwriter more recently.

Looking at their page the prces look a bit steep for me.

I understand where this is coming from. Buying a spec-wise similar device from say Lenovo would definitely be cheaper. Unfortunately, whether it is System76, TUXEDO or NovaCustom, we pay a premium for the fact that they’re Linux-first.

Lots of good answers already, but a hidden gem has yet to be mentioned: Endless OS. TL;DR: it’s an immutable distro based on Debian. As for the home directory, please consider one of the many solutions provided by others in this thread. Good luck!