Zorin OS is the way to go if you are sticking with the Debian/Ubuntu family. It’s basically the Mac OS of Linux distributions, by shipping with a level of polish that other distributions don’t deliver. To me this means I did zero tinkering out of the box to have the experience I wanted after spending a day configuring KDE in other distributions any time I did a reinstall. As far as printers go, they have always been hit or miss, but my problems were solved by disabling IPv6 on my local network.

Lol I didn’t even see that, thanks auto suggestion!

12 or 13 years? Don’t really remember or care!

How has A Plague Tail not been mentioned? Most of these mentioned a good games with a sad scene or two thrown in. Plague Tail, especially the sequel will make a grown man ugly cry.

With that budget, consider taking a look at Peak Design’s Everyday Backpack. It’s a different style than you’re used to, but it hits all the boxes, and looks sharp. They
excell at better organization. But because they are slightly rigid, textbooks might weigh a bit weird if you have too many.

https://www.peakdesign.com/collections/everyday-bags/products/everyday-backpack?variant=29743300771884

We have an everyday V2, totepack and two 30L travel packs, all highly recommend.

Organizr might be the closest thing you’re looking for

I’ve bounced around Fedora, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Mint over the years. I’ve been on Zorin OS going on two years and I’m eagerly waiting for 17 to release. I don’t see myself hopping anytime soon.

I’ve got a couple next cloud instances running on Vultr. Highly recommended to host on a cheap service on SSD storage.