Does Heavy Browser Use Affect My Choice of Linux Distro?

Absolutely, the primary consideration is your hardware, especially RAM. Web browsers can be quite demanding, and with multiple tabs open, you might want to keep an eye on your RAM usage. With 16GB, you should be fine for now, but if you plan to scale up your usage, 32GB would be ideal in the future.

You're on the right track! All major distros, including Mint, are designed with web browsing capabilities in mind. Mint even comes with Firefox pre-installed. Just keep in mind that modern browsers can be resource-heavy, so having enough RAM will help a lot. If you're into experimenting, check out browser alternatives like LibreWolf or Ungoogled Chromium for better performance.

Generally speaking, your choice of distro won't significantly affect how browsers behave on your system. Most major web browsers like Chrome, Firefox, and others are well-supported across all major Linux distros, including Mint. I've had similar setups on Mint without any hassle at all, so you should be good to go!

You're correct that the underlying infrastructure of various distros is quite similar. The operating systems utilize the same kernel, so in terms of browser performance, it won't matter much. However, it’s essential to watch out for things like Snaps or Flatpaks, as they can introduce overhead that may slow things down. Having a window manager can also help manage your apps better.

A lot of browsers are quite the memory hogs! As long as you have 16GB of RAM or more, you should be set. Just be aware that if you're using something like Brave, there have been reports about it running crypto mining in the background, so keep that in mind when choosing a browser.