This is a work in progress, if you have any suggestions or opinions on the post let me know. I'm open to editing OP with information I'm missing or a better way of describing something.
Many thanks for this mini-wiki!
Addition:
A crypto investor buddy is considering mining. I want to clarify a few preliminary items that I could not find in the Child Board “Mining Support Getting Started”:
1. Confirm: If solo mining: Full Node + mining software; mining via pool: mining software only.
2. Do GUI mining software programs exist or are they all on the BASH terminal, Powershell, etc. ?
6. Assume arbitrarily 5K miners for the entire BTC network: Does that mean that for a given block, 4,999 are NOT rewarded?