I did the classic, jump in at the deep end approach, and ended up with some distro hoping for a while. I then settled on Fedora.

Why? It did everything I wanted to do and did it well. I found some distro so easy to setup but harder to maintain, some really slick but problematic with updates and apps. Fedora, for me, just worked.

All that said, there are various factors to consider, including your hardware configuration. Some distro just happen to work better on some hardware specs, especially when considering your graphics.

I have a similar usage to you, covering a little bit of everything including gaming and dev and, so far, everything continues to work. So much so, I am thinking of switching my gaming rig over to Fedora in the coming weeks.

Unfortunately I have witnessed friends and family fall foul in the past. From scammers with ill intentions to sales reps just angling for the bigger bonus.

While scammers are often the hardest to spot and a damn sight harder to come back from, I tell everyone to have a “question first” mindset. My missus only truly adopted that when she was stung. A perfect opportunity for a “told you so” but I took the higher ground. Luckily she got the £650 back, though there was no justice as they hid tracks well. She now questions everything.

Now, sales reps on the other hand, I have had a lot of success with in terms of correcting the sly tactics. Again, I try to instill the “too good to be true” mindset. For example, my in-laws wanted broadband but were going to charge and extra £65 a month plus a £49 install charge. Why? They just wanted the line activated for broadband… they did not want the higher broadband, a call package, did not need a line install or engineer and… wait… did not want the sports channels either. They were so confused about what they had actually agreed to. Basically the rep had taken advantage of pensioners who were confused to upsell.

Unfortunately, it is too easy for a scammer or someone with ill intentions to operate and difficult to always spot them. All we can do as the savvy generation is educate.

This is an interesting one. I worked for a digital marketing agency several years ago who had an office in Leeds and London. In Leeds everyone would say hi, have the occasional chat over a coffee and say bye at the end of the day.

Working in the London office was so different, only greeted by the receptionist, no real pleasantries, no chats over coffee and a deadpan look when you get up to leave.

I found it a strange vibe. To be fair, in the same way I realised quickly it is every man for themselves on the tube. Leave the Yorkshire charm on the platform when heading to London.