Personally, XFCE is pretty lightweight, customizable and stable. I actually did a blog post where I ran Linux Mint (based on Ubuntu) with XFCE, so you can get a rough idea of it in some screenshots: https://blog.kronis.dev/articles/a-week-of-linux-instead-of-...
It's not particularly interesting or pretty, but it works well and does most if not everything that you might need, so is my choice for a daily driver. Here's the debian Wiki page on it: https://wiki.debian.org/Xfce
Apart from that, some folks also like Cinnamon, MATE, GNOME or even KDE. I think the best option is to play around in Live CDs with them and see which feel the best for your individual needs and taste. Do note that Ubuntu as a base distro might give you fewer hassles in regards to proprietary drivers, if you don't care about using only free software much.
> I still can't believe that Windows has turned into such a bloatware/mess that i'm actually at a point i can't live with it anymore...
That is quite unfortunate, especially because there is some software that I think Windows does better - like MobaXTerm or 7-Zip (with its GUI), FancyZones (for window snapping) and most of the GPU control panels.
That said, as that article of mine shows, Linux on the desktop is actually way better than it used to be years ago and gaming is definitely viable, even if not all of the titles are supported. Sadly, I don't think that'll happen anytime soon, but it's still better than nothing!
I'll still probably go the dual boot route with Windows and Linux, or maybe will have a VM with GPU passthrough for specific games on Linux, although I haven't gotten it working just right, ever. Oh well, here's to a brighter future!
