[LONG-WINDED ALERT]
At 3yrs in (yesterday, actually) with Linux as my "primary OS" / "daily driver OS", I have reached the stage in my Linux journey where I'm really starting to feel "the itch of wanderlust" to "leave the village" of where I began my Linux journey, and strike out at exploring the greater Linux world and all its wonderful hazards and hazardous wonders. Like a lot of people, my "village", my "landing spot" with Linux was within the "official flavors" of Canonical-maintained Ubuntu - for me specifically, that meant Ubuntu Studio.
So getting my head around all the various distros, and root distro branches is key to figuring out where I want to go next to explore. I currently have a grand total of seven devices running Linux (not counting my daily use Android phone, which is technically also Linux) with each running unique distros, with plans to grab a few more and put other unique distros on them. I haven't travelled super far yet, as all but one of the distros I'm currently using are either based on Ubuntu or on Arch (the lone standout being Fedora 37, which I've used little enough, and only superficially enough thus far to have not managed to get a strong feel for one way or the other).
But even as I begin to get my head around Arch, which I first experienced through SteamOS via the Steam Deck desktop mode, and have since added a Manjaro and a Garuda install, and even moreso "Arch in general vs Ubuntu in general", I'm finding it fascinating and exhilarating, with a "not ready to commit" fledgling impression emerging that I'm going to prefer Arch. Getting a better grasp on Fedora will turn the already fascinating two-way comparison into an even more exciting three-way. I also hope to add some Debian (non-Ubuntu)-based distro soon, such as Deepin or Vanilla, or hell, perhaps even straight Debian itself.
It also became very clear to me very early in that my preferred DE was KDE, with three of my distros using it (Ubuntu Studio, KDE Neon and SteamOS), much preferring it over Gnome, Xfce, and Lxde / Lxqt. Though there are other DEs that I have yet to really explore that could steal the crown, such as UKUI, or especially.....Wayfire!!
But this is all part and parcel, I suspect, with being in the early days of the "wanderlust phase" of being a Linux user. I imagine that someday, I'll find a place to settle down, be it back in the "childhood village" of Ubuntu, the exciting new sizzle city of Arch, where all the cool kids seem to be going and all the cool stuff seems to be happening, or somewhere else that I may or may not have even heard of yet. But for now, it's all about seeing what's out there and getting a better feel about it!
And for that (though I did already know much of it coming into it), this post is very helpful and instructive! So thank you!
I still have Windows on my company-owned work computers, my wife still has it on her personal laptop, and my teenager uses it on their school-issued laptop (which doubles as their personal laptop), plus I still deal with it when I visit my retirement-age parents across town once or twice a month since they both still use it. But in terms of my own personal devices, I am proud to say that I am now "100% Linux". I purged the last Windows install a little over a year ago, and the last macOS install a few weeks ago. I actually stopped using Mac much more quickly than I stopped using Windows (within just a couple months vs closer to a year for Windows), but had to keep the Mac install around for longer due to unfinished business with the podcast involving it. Now that that unfinished business is finished, I was finally able to wipe it, which I did - and replaced it on my Mac mini with Elementary OS 7, since it retains a bunch of the macOS vibe that I admittedly still admire.
