I've been using Void Linux for a couple years now on my Thinkpad T400, I typically use it as a daily driver though I still have Windows installed for when I need it. (pretty much just games at this point) Linux has been able to replace everything I do on my computer especially coding with the exception of gaming, where windows still has better support for than Linux. (I am aware of stuff like PlayOnLinux and Wine BTW) The challenges I face tend to be because of the niche distro I use (Re: Void) whether it be missing packages or weird software happenings, though both of these have been on the down as of late. (The Void people are doing a great job with keeping everything working)
This is a tough question for me to answer, considering my entrance to Linux was a few years back in 2014 with Linux Mint; I never got any help as I've always been a search engine fix my problems sort of person and I didn't come across any problems that couldn't be answered by that approach.
The coding environment, hands down it's the best one out there. Its only gotten better from my experience and more cool tools get developed and current ones get updated, though I've been in Linux for a bit longer than a year. My Favorite distro is Void, they've been doing a good job at keeping off systemd and a hearing to the KISS standard of which systemd is not; I'd say my favorite people have to be the guys on the Discord Linux server, particularly this one random snob @undeadleech. Linux has taught me many things such as it is possible to have 46mb of ram useage without a GUI running.