Unfortunately boring distributions don't get recommended because users of boring distributions don't bother commenting on distribution discussions.

And it's really unfortunate that obscure distributions have more vocal fans, because boring distributions are much better for beginners.

Don't try zsh, because you won't be able to go back to bash after that 😉

You don't need Windows for gaming.

Sure, some games only work on Windows but some only work on Switch or PS5 and you can still play video games without playing those in particular.

Yes, on the licensing front RISC-V is better.

How can you have a preference if you don't understand?

It's neither. It's a specification that you can use to build your own chip.

So it's more like MPEG where you can read the doc and create your own implementation.

No it's not, anyone can get a license to create an ARM chipset but you do need to pay for a license.

The hardware in an arcade cabinet is either a raspberry pi or a regular desktop PC.

Nothing in particular, for the past few years I didn't like the direction Ubuntu was taking but I stayed because I was too lazy to switch and it didn't feel that bad.

So I'm not sure exactly what was the last straw, maybe part of it was me getting a Steam Deck, discovering flatpak and understanding how bad snap was compared to it.

It just works, just like Ubuntu before they started pushing snap down everyone's throat (which is what made me switch eventually.)

I had a bad image of RedHat/Fedora's package management from the time deb was much superior, but no they caught up and are on the same level (I know, it's probably been a while).

I also like how they mostly package upstream without too many changes. When Ubuntu started upstream was a bit lacking so making changes was necessary to get something that looks like a consistent OS rather than a patchwork of packages, but now it's no longer needed. Ubuntu is no longer the only distribution with that level of polish.

• In the 90's: Slackware, then RedHat, then Debian, then Progeny (Debian based), then shortly Mandrake (RedHat based)

• Early 2000's: RedHat Japanese edition, TurboLinux (because I was in Japan and Japanese IME was almost impossible to get working on non-Japanese distributions)

• Then I had fun with Gentoo looking at my terminal compiling stuff everyday and fixing broken package because I followed advices to activate crazy compilation flags

• 2004: Ubuntu, that I used for nearly 20 years

• Last year: switched to Fedora

There is xreal, nreal, rokid... Plenty of manufacturers to pick with, and you can spare money for a regular laptop.