Having been a first time fulltime Linux user I recommend that before you pull the trigger first you boot up the live drive and use it to see if it is your cup of tea. There may be a ton you love there may be a few irritations you can live with, or you just found you prefer using some other build. I think I ended up looking at about 10 different builds of Linux so far.
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Trust me, once you set your eyes on linux you never go back. It may take a few years but you eventually cannot tolerate the windows update and reboot without your consent crap, ads, privacy violations and much more. Additionally, if you stick with openmandriva you will over time have much deeper understanding of computers and linux systems, skills that can be jobs 
But more importantly, you won’t be annoyed by windows notifications anymore, and you wont have to upgrade to the incoming windows 12 monthly subscription in 5 years once microsoft decides windows 11 is unsupported. Switching to linux sends a strong message to microsoft. The end of windows 10 support will be their downfall.
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this is totally natural i think for many new to Linux, and especially those of us fascinated and curious about Linux and all the choices out there. and may last years, or forever 
hi eMercody and welcome to your Linux journey, and to OpenMandriva. i’m new here too, but not new to Linux; i’m no guru or expert by any means, and not a dev or programmer or anything of the sort, at best, a power user, but really just a regular guy with a love for Linux and free open source software. i’ve been using Linux OSes full time since 2009.
not to come here and immediately discredit any active and helpful members here, like WilsonPhillips or pastorczo13, but i’m here to give a counter argument, as i have literally intalled Linux hundreds of times over the years, on all sorts of hardware, on VMs, and many partitions and had a share of problems, some which i tried to figure out, and others where i just gave up and did reinstalls, and i can tell you with confidence, that, dual(or multi) booting problems are rare, BUT, since you yourself said you planned on switching from the start, either just go for it and try a dual boot if you wish, the worst case scenario is, it doesn’t work, or only one OS boots, so, just try again, who cares, new systems, no data or files to lose, just do it, the installers can and will do a good job anyway, OR, what i suggest, is you just install Linux, since it seems that’s what you really want to use, and then, just have Windows installed on a virtual machine, JUST IN CASE you ever REALLY need windows.
and that will work fine. you can get the license key from the BIOS/UEFI, and often the installer can read it directly from the hardware, even from a VM if using virtual machine manager or Boxes, and maybe others too.
just jump right on in, the water’s warm, and there’s a supportive community out there, and a few jerks too, but that’s the world for you.
personally, i don’t even see the need for a dual boot. i haven’t used windows in forever, and unless there’s some extremely unusual case where an instance of windows running in a virtual machine does not suit your needs, then, and only then, consider installing it on “bare metal”, and if the windows install messes up your dual boot, there are tools and even distros you can run from a live USB to repair that, like ‘antiX’ or ‘MX Linux’ or more specialized distros like ‘Super GRUB Disk’.
i’m new to OM but i gotta say i love it and the independent nature of it, the great welcome window/app, inherited from Mandrake back in the day as i understand it, but still an awesome and helpful thing, which i don’t understand why it’s not shared across most distros.
i have several laptops with more than 4 sytems on them, and i have been doing multi partition installs for years, although lately i’ve simplified them to just / (root, or, the system partition/directory) and /home (your data directory) and swap (i usually double the ram if i have plenty of space), but i have done installs where every directory had its own partition. nowadays i think swap files can replace a swap partition.
just go for it, and maybe consider making at least a /home partition, then if you mess something up, or want to try something else, you can always reuse that home partition, just keep the username(s) and passwords the same, but you might get little glitches like settings from one desktop environment affecting how another looks, like icons, cursors, themes, stuff like that, which can often just be sorted by changing appearance stuff again.
Welcome!
If you’re not playing games that have anti-cheat, then I would agree with the folks saying pull your Windows key out and don’t dual boot.
With the exception of some ancient Flash-based games, I’ve had no trouble running games on OM, even more recent things like Diablo IV. There’s another intro here with Starfield, and of course, anything that is Steam verified for the Steam Deck will run fine.
There are plenty of options to replace Windows apps, like LibreOffice, Inkscape (vector art), Gimp (non-vector art), Blender (3d modelling), FreeCAD, etc.
Embrace the uncertainty–that’s where you get to learn new stuff.
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Since I have one of these, I can tell you that you should make sure the firmware is up to date. I had “thermal issues” with mine that was a firmware bug. Do that before putting an OS on it, if you can. Otherwise, the operation was safe when I performed it and did not destroy data on the drive. Always have backups.
Didn’t user report successful install in Post #18? Can we close this as resolved? New issues should be in their own post with an accurately descriptive title otherwise other users will never see any additional problems discussed.
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let’s be real, the end of Win10 will not be MS’s downfall, at best, “Linux” will gain maybe a few thousand users, and most people on Win10 computers will never even be aware of what they’re using and they don’t care; they’ll just continue using old outdated, unsupported software with security vulnerabilities which may or may not ever affect them in any way anyhow.
either way, we will be here, happily NOT using windows, while Linux use slowly grows, and Windows use slowly declines.
major 3rd party software support for Linux will actually make a pretty major difference towards Linux adoption, since then studios and businesses can finally see it as a viable platform for their needs.
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Regarding Windows 10, I believe you are correct. It will be a repeat of Windows 7. How long did 7 hang around? How long did XP survive? The company where I last worked got a letter from Microsoft to either upgrade from XP to 7 or else. So I was told. Suddenly, Windows 7 appeared and all the old, bug infested proprietary company software that required Internet Exploder 4 went away because it couldn’t run on Edge.
The truth is, most Joe Average people are terrified of Linux. For example, a few years ago when Linux Tech Tips failed at using Linux and did so spectacularly, in my opinion. Most people watching that will point and say, “See! Linux is too difficult!” There are far too many “Linux is scary” videos out there.
Is this any skin off my back? No. I am a retired truck driver who has been tinkering with computers since 1984. If someone asks me to install Linux, I will install OM after checking the hardware for any surprises, such as ingesting coffee or soft drinks, or hardware that is about to die and just isn’t worth messing with.
As for Microsoft, the brainwashing remains strong among the general populace. I am convinced that most people will put up with all kinds of junk stuck inside their operating system.
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