I'm new and it's kinda overwhelming to get into

Hi, sorry if this doesn't belong here. Getting to the point basically, I've been using online-only AI like GPT/Gemini since 2022, and have been interested in local models but am clueless overall. Yes I'm extremely late.

I only use laptop (I'm a student), and I currently own:

• Acer swift 5 SF514-55TA (main, budget laptop)

• Acer Nitro 5 AN515-53 (not used currently)

I don't know if it's even possible to set up anything on these.

I vaguely know the basics of local models (but I'm probably too dumb for stuff like finetuning, prompts, personal setups, all that fancy shit I see online), and I have a ton of information, models, etc bookmarked on my browser which makes it hard to choose something

I know (and am interested in image generation, Chatting (models)? "agents" (task programs?). I guess that needs a lot of separate programs/installations? Or is it possible to have a single client to run varying programs? (im not sure if that's even referred to correctly?) (I'll likely start small)

I assume a "program" like LM studio is a good starting point?