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.
Just be aware that “stable” in the linux world means “old.” All of the software in the Debian repos will be much more out of date than some other distros like Pop!_OS, Fedora, or even Ubuntu. If you upgrade to newer hardware, or want to use newer software, Debian may not support it without jumping through some major hoops.
LOL. It’s not hard at all. Run “unstable”. Unstable doesn’t mean it’s going to crash, it means it gets updated. There are zero major hoops, and Debian is usually more rock solid than its offshoots, and aside from release freeze windows is at least as up to date as those you mentioned. I mean, use whatever you want, most major distributions are going to be fine, but you don’t need to pointlessly spread FUD.
I’m using Debian with the testing branch for a while on a Lenovo T470, haven’t had any issues with it ever.
From the software part, I think this is only an issue if you’re a developer. If you want something like the most recent LibreOffice, you can just install it via Flatpak. A bigger issue arises if you need something like a more recent Python or GCC.
From the hardware part, you should of course always check beforehand with a live distro if your hardware is supported. Debian 12 however is very recent and should support most recent hardware and it will keep supporting it unless you upgrade e.g. your GPU.