I’m not the best person to ask as I just chat on a few channels in a single server.
There definitely are software projects that run their real-time support through Matrix in the same way others do it through IRC or Discord.
At the same time most servers seem to have a General room (or similar) for off-topic chats.
Peruse the big list of public rooms here. That might give you a sense of it.
It was many months between announcement and release of their previous hardware. How soon do you need a laptop?