openSUSE is rather small, not everything is packaged for it. Arch is the best in terms of software availability, thanks to the AUR.
The only distro that even comes close is NixOS, but I really wouldn’t recommend it for beginners. You can explore it in a VM though or maybe at some point actually try it out. It’s very very different than other distros though.
I thought a more advanced distro, that is still stable, would be good overall. However, not getting new software for a long time sounds quite annoying.
Arch is actually not as bad as many say. It’s pretty stable nowadays, I even run Arch on some servers and I never had any issues. It gives you the benefits that you can basically find any package in the AUR and everything is up-to-date. Try it out, if you don’t like it, you can still switch to something else.
I’m wanting to challenge myself to get much better with Linux, partitioning, CLI, CLI tools
The best way to learn the CLI is to use it. Try not to use your graphical file manager for a while and only interact with the file system through the terminal, that teaches you a lot.
I’ve been considering installing Arch the traditional way, on my X220, as a way to force myself to improve. Is this a good way to learn more about Linux and a Linux system in general?
Yes.
I always hear good things about the Arch Wiki.
It is truly fantastic.
Is there any other tips someone can give me, to sharpen my Linux skills?
Use the system, don’t be shy, try different things out. If you are scared that you might break something, try it out in a VM. Break your VM and try to fix it. That teaches you a lot.
I was even considering trying out Gentoo on my X220, but the compiling times sound painful.
I would not recommend that, updating packages will take ages, it’s not a great experience.
I’d rather avoid a Linux distro that’s implementing something like ads or telemetry…if that’s even a thing that’s happening?
Fedora has some telemetry, but as far as I know, you can turn it off during the installation. Some desktop environments like KDE Plasma also have options for telemetry but it’s disabled by default. If you want it, you manually have to enable it in the settings.
Should I avoid OpenSUSE
Some software might not be available on openSUSE
or KDE Plasma
Not really, Plasma has a shitload of features and customization options, if many options tend to overwhelm you, you might be better of with a different desktop environment, if you are fine with customization options, Plasma is great for you.
Are there any ‘10 things to do first when installing Linux for the first time’ recommendations?
Using Signal with disappearing messages set to a really short time is probably the closest thing you can get. You can use a VOIP number from Cloaked behind a VPN to sign up anonymously.
Obviously that was not entirely serious, but in combination with all the other shit that is incredibly expensive nowadays a $700 charge might actually put some people in financial trouble