What’s the use case? Is there a reason that the disk is not unlocked at boot/login?

I think any distro will do really. I’d go for something that is friendly to new users, if you’re not very familiar with Linux in general. For example: Linux Mint. Here is an example on how you can get your installation setup easily: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyT4wfz5ZMg

Regarding your Valve Index. It will likely work, but don’t expect it to be very easy to get it running well. I’m currently on Arch Linux with red team hardware and a Valve Index. For example, you will need to ensure the udev rules are set properly: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-devices. New issues occasionally arise, see: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/SteamVR-for-Linux/issues. Currently, it’s not switching audio devices automatically, so I use pavucontrol (with PipeWire) to switch that manually.

Love it. Too bad it’s missing the eating sound we all know so well

Oh I didn’t know that yet! Amazing stuff.

You’re in luck. As far as i recall wincompose is inspired by Xorg’s Compose feature (https://github.com/samhocevar/wincompose?tab=readme-ov-file#features). Depending on your installation you can toggle it via some settings, or by running: setxkbmap -option compose:ralt

I always find the book useful for this stuff: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Xorg/Keyboard_configuration#Configuring_compose_key

I use a gaming-mode for that. Like this:

# Create a gaming mode
mode "gaming" {
    # switch to workspace
    bindsym $mod+1 workspace number $ws1 ; mode "default"
    bindsym $mod+2 workspace number $ws2 ; mode "default"
    bindsym $mod+3 workspace number $ws3 ; mode "default"
    bindsym $mod+4 workspace number $ws4 ; mode "default"
    bindsym $mod+5 workspace number $ws5 ; mode "default"
    bindsym $mod+6 workspace number $ws6 ; mode "default"
    bindsym $mod+7 workspace number $ws7 ; mode "default"
    bindsym $mod+8 workspace number $ws8 ; mode "default"
    bindsym $mod+9 workspace number $ws9 ; mode "default"

    # move focused container to workspace
    bindsym $mod+Shift+1 move container to workspace number $ws1
    bindsym $mod+Shift+2 move container to workspace number $ws2
    bindsym $mod+Shift+3 move container to workspace number $ws3
    bindsym $mod+Shift+4 move container to workspace number $ws4
    bindsym $mod+Shift+5 move container to workspace number $ws5
    bindsym $mod+Shift+6 move container to workspace number $ws6
    bindsym $mod+Shift+7 move container to workspace number $ws7
    bindsym $mod+Shift+8 move container to workspace number $ws8
    bindsym $mod+Shift+9 move container to workspace number $ws9
    bindsym $mod+Shift+0 move container to workspace number $ws10
}

# Enter the gaming mode when a game is started
for_window [class="^steam_app_"] move to workspace $ws10; workspace $ws10; mode "gaming"
for_window [class="^hl2_linux"] move to workspace $ws10; workspace $ws10; mode "gaming"

This automatically moves (most) games to workspaces 10 and switches to that workspace. This allows me to use key combinations that would otherwise be used by i3.

Well… I guess I have been living under a rock. Today is the first time to have heard of info. I have been using man for well over 2 decades now.

I think Wikipedia is a valuable common good and should be maintained. Because I can afford it, I donate monthly, even if I only use it a few times each month.