It desperately needs it

I mean using LMDE I can get the latest versions of all the software I care about through manual install or app images or flatpak, while still having a super stable system. Really made me reevaluate my pros-cons list. Frankly, the only downside is an old DE, which i dont really mind as I use WMs

No the problem is that Canonical moderates the Snap store like AUR but advertises it as totally safe and forces you to use snap versions of some apps on ubuntu (like firefox). Flatpak also has some advantages so that helps but mostly people are pissy at the terrible mismanagement.

I am indeed a game dev; but I am a hobbyist. Currently working on a simple puzzle game called HIVE in C (sorry for the low quality) youtu.be/8sbpNZ4HuTc

lil game demo

Its really sad that we no longer think that tech can last

The fact that literally every member of my family was shocked when I said I planned to use my brand new laptop for atleast 10 years.

Yeah! Sometimes new software feels downright hostile to old hardware for no reason; its probably part of the reason we have such an e-waste problem.

(But its Linux so its still usually pretty fast)

I feel like it also important to mention that VMs take more processing power than just running it off the LiveUSB; so it'll be slower than the real thing.

or you could use a liveUSB. Essentially (most) linux installers have a temporary copy of the OS you want when you open them. You can probably have a good play around and as long as you don't click the big INSTALL button, it'll all be temporary!