If Linux cannot help me do them then in what way is it a widely suitable mass operating system as proponents are constantly claiming instead of merely a hobby tool that can do a very limited range of things.
Not sure what you mean by this as I have used tons of linux machines to earn a living for the last 20 years or more. Just because you haven’t delved into it doesn’t mean it is just a hobby tool. No offense, but if that is your attitude towards this then it might be best to not switch. Things might not always be up to par with what you are used to, but I have seen some pretty cringy things go on in current mainstream windows. Try having an issue with onedrive and asking the team supporting it to help. First step is to reboot. If that doesn’t work they uninstall then reinstall. If that doesn’t work, well then I guess you are out of luck. When I asked them about anything in the log files, all I got was blanks stares. My point is, windows isn’t some pristine environment with no flaws that we should all strive to reach, it has it’s own issues.
For instance, your Notepad++ question. I know you don’t want to use multiple tools to replace it, but I would venture to guess that the work I do daily, I would probably come up with solutions using vi, sed, and awk on the command line just as fast as you could using the gui. The thing is, I have been doing it for so long it’s just second nature to me. Would I want to switch to Notepad++, no.
Maybe come up with some examples of what you do in Notepad++ and people can give you alternative solutions.
This is where ACL permissions would help. He could give his new id ACL permissions to the files and that wouldn’t mess with the current permissions.
From the root/beginning subdir: sudo setfacl -R -m u:{replace with your new id}:rwx .