Looking for Linux Distro Recommendations for Dual-Booting on My New Gaming PC

Your MacBook Pro should be able to handle Next.js fine, which makes me think there might be another issue at play. Have you considered checking your Activity Monitor? There might be some app or process eating up your CPU. I've had similar issues with specific plugins before, too!

I'd suggest giving Debian a shot, or even a derivative like Ubuntu. It's widely used in the dev community, so you won’t struggle finding help or resources. It does matter what you choose, but you can't go wrong with Debian.

If you’re just starting out with Linux, Ubuntu is a solid choice. It’s user-friendly, and you’ll find plenty of documentation to help you out. Plus, since it's popular, you know that most tools will work well with it.

For something a bit different, have you thought about trying Mint? It's really beginner-friendly and works great out of the box. If you're a bit more adventurous, Arch Linux could be fun — it's minimal and has excellent documentation.

Since you're looking into dual-booting, have you considered using a virtual machine instead? It might be easier if your development sessions are occasional. You could use Oracle VirtualBox or even WSL2 on Windows.