Linux

You already know why you should pick Debian:

Pro: The most stable OS I’ve used

About your "ancient packages" that's an easy fix, just install all your software using Flatpak/Flathub and you'll get the latest software on your rock solid base system.

This Lemmy BBQ has been the most entertaining yet... First off, now that the drunk uncles are finally showing up and the conversation has meandered away from OP's original question, I would like to say thank you OP - I was stoked to find your retro-gaming youtube. So good man!

The next bit of entertainment are the aforementioned drunk uncles scrapping it out on the lawn mid-post. Who has the bitchin'est Camaro? Nevermind that for a moment. Did Uncle Vinnie and Uncle Scotty say their FIREBIRDS are the bitchin'est? Fuck those guys! Linus from the Linus Tuner Garage out on the coast at 138 Richmond and Main said he busted the shit out of the Firebird dashboard that one time. Nah man, that was a Civic, but whatever, Firebirds blow. Pontiac is a shitty company anyway. Um, aren't they all GM. Yeah, but Firebirds have that shitty design on the hood and crap aftermarket support.

Why don't we all just sit around the Grill. Pick your steak, have a beer...

And thank fuck we aren't using Windows 11

I wouldn't recommend any of those. Since you have Nvidia go with Linux Mint or Pop os as they both have good support for Nvidia.

Gotta throw my vote in for tumbleweed. Its IMO the best distro to get the latest packages while still maintaining stability. Their built in roll back feature is great.

Software not being well supported is kinda a sticking point. Though honestly its becoming less and less of an issue each day. Flatpaks are available for almost everything, distrobox covers the rest. I really haven't run into any situation that prevented me from doing what I wanted. I've been using it for a few years now across my desktop, laptop, and my computer at work. Suse is enterprise Linux after all, its still got great support

Cannot say for other programs you mentioned (although I'm sure they work fine as well) I'm using Godot on EndeavourOS and it is perfect. If your only concern is terminal, EndeavourOS has built-in scripts for updating your system. Also using an AUR helper would make your tasks easier, which "yay" is pre-installed. You can basically type "yay package_name" and it will guide you.

I was once in the same boat. Here is what I did, put a second drive into my PC and separated my root and home partitions then kept hopping distros until I found the one that worked for me. That way, I didn't lose my important files while hopping. The distro I landed on was endeavour OS. I have been using it for 3 years now. Not suggesting that you should use it, because every distro works differently for different people depending on many factors. But try this and see if you find your own endeavour OS. Good luck :)

If you are using davinci on your system a lot, you can try their pre-packaged iso. They recommend rocky Linux nowadays and also provide an iso for it.

If you are interested in something arch-based but like having guis for stuff, I highly recommend Garuda Linux. I've been using it for about a year on my everyday desktop for gaming and it's been great. I also have really liked fedora bazzite on my laptop for almost the same time period.

I'd stay away from manjaro, I wouldn't touch it again with a 10 foot pole. Every time I've tried to use it, it just breaks itself every 3-6 months. I know some people swear by it, but I just have to assume they either have extreme tier knowledge to prevent trouble before it starts, are so used to fixing problems they are blind to their time spent doing it, or they are just incredibly lucky.