Aw yeah that makes sense actually on rereading it. I think i was going to try the Proton Bridge at first on moving to Linux but then saw it was only available via their paid version.
That put me off lol, so I’m just sticking to using it via browser and their own mobile app for now.
I bought a laptop very similar (same model group but from the year after) to this just before Christmas for my niece. Got it 2nd hand, as my brother was just looking a laptop that she could browse on and maybe do some homework.
I refurbished it and got it cleaned up and I tried lubuntu, xubuntu, linux mint xfce and one other (forget now). Same thing kept happening. Would simply freeze when trying to boot them. Had removed Secure Boot too.
After couple days of trying I ended up giving up and going with a Windows 10 LTSC IoT version from Massgrave for her.
Wish I had better news or something more productive for you. Sorry!