I really have to say the same too! Even though I haven’t really used Linux for a long period of time (started around 2020-2022 on Virtualbox then dual booted in 2024 on a laptop), Tumbleweed really made me stop distro hopping.
I started experiencing with Ubuntu on Virtualbox. I had no idea how distros work. I remember that I couldn’t find the proper words to describe how Ubuntu looked very “mobile” (because GNOME) and thought that’s what Linux is so I stopped.
And then I started searching “Windows 7 Linux Alternative” or something and found Zorin OS and I really stuck quite a bit with it, which I still have on another home machine.
But I reached a point where I wanted to really “customize” the OS so I did some research and watched some video from “The Linux Experiment” and found myself enjoying KDE (it looks modern like Windows). I wanted a stable distro so I distrohopped from Zorin to Sparky Linux.
Eventually, I decided to replace my old laptop for a new one (which I asked in the SuggestALaptop Discord and subreddit). Coincidentally, they recommended me a ThinkPad because of its build quality which happened to support Linux so I got it. But because it has the more or less the latest hardware, I knew I had to distro hop again to a more bleeding edge distro and that’s where I found OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. I could’ve went for Arch or Fedora but I really want KDE as the flagship desktop and Arch seems too unstable for me
And that’s where I am ever since. It’s been slightly more than a year since I’ve used Tumbleweed. Had a few hiccups here and there, ruined GRUB twice but I’m glad Discord support on the OpenSUSE discord worked out.
Really appreciate the forums here too. I think it’s quite nice and active.
Tl;dr: Ubuntu (virtualbox) → Zorin OS → Sparky Linux KDE → OpenSUSE Tumbleweed.
Also because of this, I got a mini PC as a home server and it uses Ubuntu LTS (and yes I still don’t really like GNOME).