The only change during the 16 years is that I switched from Ubuntu (with Gnome) to Xubuntu (with Xfce) [1], but I still call it Ubuntu. When people ask me about the difference between the two, I respond "color". I spend 90% of my time on the terminal, and I prefer the gray-blue style of Xfce and its lightness when I use the window system during the other 10%.
Before starting Linux, I had a very limited idea about what a computer is and how it works. An anecdote I often relate to my students is that I once copied the icon of an application (Turbo C) from one computer to another, believing that I could use the application on the second computer. Linux has taught me what a computer really is.
An "achievement" may be worth mentioning: in the past 16 years, essentially all my work as an applied mathematician has been typed under terminal using Vim, including papers, lecture notes, slides, programs, and particularly my 200-page PhD thesis in Chinese. It was not quite trivial to type Chinese in Vim --- think about it: how to get a Chinese inputting system that can work seamlessly with Vim's key bindings? Fcitx would not work (at least it was the case 13 years ago).
[1] Xubuntu 24.04 released! https://xubuntu.org/news/xubuntu-24-04-released