To the point of a very new person to linux asking about the lingo and the basics of using linux, the Debian Administrators Handbook has an excellent “remedial” section in its appendix. It covers a lot of the basics of working with your first linux computer. I have run various distros over the years but when i finally pulled the trigger on migrating to debian from ubuntu, i did take the time to read the remedial section and the first 8 or so chapters to have a more in-depth understanding of the logic and design choices but i found the remedial section to be a particularly good refresher and explanation of the basics that everyone takes for granted.
There is a suggested donation but the author is kind enough to not enforce a paywall.
Imo, yes but the things that are dealbreakers (for me it was ads in the terminal) that Canonical has done are across the spectrum. In the end i felt they were too opinionated (see also why i like kde plasma) and wanted to control the “experience” of using my hardware. Always compromises within any complex system and i thought Debian was a good blank-ish slate for me to work on. Plus i self host quite a bit and am sick of windows licensing and microsft shenanigans so i need something for my servers as well.