I share the same sentiment. Grabbed a laptop last week to be able to wfh somewhere else and entertain myself too, and to try if I couldn’t get gaming to work on Linux, and had that feeling of curiosity back about what is new and how everything works. The feeling was lost sometime after Windows 7, and replaced with a slight feeling of dread about where everything got misplaced in this newest shiniest iteration of Windows.
Couldn’t be happier with fiddling with distros!
It is known in Germany, “Eulen nach Athen tragen”. I’ve heard the explanation that the currency of Athens in antiquity had owl on one side.
This one https://www.reppa.de/images/BilderE/eulen2.GIF