An option if you don't want to deal with dual boot: buy something like a Bee-link SER8 for $499 and use that for Linux. It's tiny and performs well. Use a KVM or swap cables between computers.

(I only game on the weekends so I just cable swap, because my KVM is Mac <--> Gaming PC/SER8.)

Finding a good KVM switch at a good price can be hard. Usually the video output isnt great. what I found works isnusing a USB switch with a monitor that supports two inputs. Switching machines is two operations. First, switch monitors, then switch USB.

Computers are so stupidly fast now, it does seem like this is the future. Thanks to the laptop market, the tiny desktop models have more then sufficient oomph to do everything that 99% of users require. Keep the bulky tower for gaming or workstation loads.

Hypocrite because my daily driver is a uATX where I mostly just browser the internet and watch movies.

Not a bad idea in principle but I can't justify purchasing separate hardware just for this purpose -- I have an almost perfectly running machine, and I don't want to spend a few hundred dollars on a separate one. If I have files that need to be shared, that makes things more complicated.

Too hard. Just take your original windows license and run up a VM in QEMU. Perfect for dealing with windows only things