I used Ubuntu in my college for some light programming and felt really happy about it.
I am more interested in switching to Debian 12 than Ubuntu, since the former is really stable. Also, I came to know installing Debian is easier since it supports non free firmware.
How do I know if my device actually works with all the foss drivers? Is there a list of hardware supported?
It would be nigh impossible to list all the hardware Bookworm is able to support. What are you looking to run it on? Anything obscure?
I think my laptop is 7 or 8 years old. I have an HP printer which I use. Will my printer work ?
You’re almost certainly fine. Check the Live DVD, but I’d bet it works seamlessly.
HP actively supports their printers in Linux. Debian 12 is not listed though, only 11.
https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing
Edit: Added the bit about Debian 12
From my experience with Linux - your hardware will almost certainly work just fine without a problem.
It’ll be your Windows software that you’re going to have potential problems with. This is likely way less hassle than it was 10-20 years ago - wine has been continuously improved, DirectX 12 was open sourced, and a lot of software is run in web browsers these days anwyay, but depending what you’re trying to do, it can still be a challenge.
certainly not always true… sometimes you can still have issues with wifi cards for example