Your enthusiasm is shining through. For someone wanting to do exactly what you said "just make lots of music. Make the music you imagine in your head." and faced with the issue of "There are 300 DAWs, you need to find the one that fits your 'style' or 'workflow'.", how do I choose? I am not a music maker, I have never made music - I would like to though. I don't even have a style or workflow. I don't know how to start.
Start by starting! Pick a DAW, if you can't pick one, pick one of the most famous. Ableton Live maybe?
Just put some notes down and hit the play button. That's the whole feedback loop. Everything else is just honing your skill and repeating this feedback loop 80 thousand times until you start getting stuff out that you semi-like :)
PS: My background is also as a computer programmer with previously zero music making experience. My first tracks were absolute garbage, and that's fine. Every new track is 0.01% better (read: less worse :') than the last one, and that's it. Rinse. Repeat.