Distro Hopping seems to be such a big part of the “Linux experience.”
It’s not, it’s just a way to find the distro that suits you best.
If you’re already satisfied with what you have, there’s no reason to change and you’re not missing out on anything. If you’re ever curious about other distros, install Virtualbox and try them in a VM.
I stopped distro hopping years ago when I started using Linux MX (Debian based), I’m so happy with it that I have no intention to change ever again.
The only other distro I really like is LMDE (Mint based on Debian instead of Ubuntu), so I put that one on my laptop (MX on my gaming desktop).
This might be an unpopular opinion but I really don’t get this trend of wanting to containerized just about everything, it feels like a FOTM rather than doing something that makes sense.
I mean, containers are fantastic tools and can help solve compatibility problems and make things more secure, especially on servers, but putting everything into containers on the desktop doesn’t make any sense to me.
One of the big advantages Linux always had over Windows is shared components, so packages are much smaller and updating the whole system is way faster, if every single application comes with its own stuff (like it does on Windows) you lose that advantage.
Ubuntu’s obsession with snaps is one of the reasons I stopped using it years ago, I don’t want containers forced upon me, I want to be free to decide if/when to use them (I prefer flatpack and appimage).
Debian derivatives that don’t “reinvent the wheel” is the way to go for me, I’ve been using Linux MX on my gaming desktop and LMDE on laptop for years and I couldn’t be happier, no problem whatsoever with Steam either.
Yeah and sometimes it’s not even just about customers, some people don’t realize big enterprises (as in dozens of thousands of employees) are very different from smaller companies, they’re like a “different world” on their own, not everything you can do on a smaller scale is feasible. They would probably need to work in one to really understand.
You can’t do whatever you want if you’re an employee in a big enterprise, there are company-wide rules and standards that you have to respect, you can’t expect your colleagues to adapt to you nor you can decide which OS to install on your company PC.
That’s not to say you can’t use Linux at all, you can ask your IT to be allowed to install Virtualbox and use Linux in a VM, that’s what I do, there are a lot of things that don’t strictly require Windows and I use Linux for those.
I use Linux MX on my gaming desktop and LMDE on my laptop. I also have an encrypted LMDE VM that I use for some working stuff, since I have to use Windows on my company PC (but we’re allowed to have Virtualbox on it).
The desktop is pretty new, I built it a month ago after almost 10 years, it’s i9 and rtx 4070. The laptop is several years old (HP spectre), but since the previous one gave me so many headaches with nvidia optimus, I decided to go full Intel, I’m happy I did because I had no problems with it whatsoever, Intel only on laptops for me going on.
I did something similar, ran into her cage, convinced to tieflings to go away but I didn’t realize at first you can use a ranged weapon to free her (yeah I’m that noob lol) so I went away to search for crates to climb on. As soon as I left the area the quest was completed, she was no longer there.
As I understand it, she freed herself and you will find her quite later on to join you (after mountain pass) - assuming you convinced to tieflings to not kill her, in that case she’s not lost, you’ll have another chance.
I personally reloaded a previous save to free her myself.