Making sense of Ethereum speculation variables

So I'm trying to educate myself as much as possible about the current cryptocurrency climate and in particular Ethereum and the things happening that will effect the price and ultimately the future of ether. I am a novice to all of this stuff and that is why I am asking the smarter people to perhaps dumb all of these variables down for me and present it in laymen's terms.

Initially, a friend of mine was recently telling me that ether would be forking in January and due to this he was buying a decent amount of it in hopes of getting the free etherzero coin when it forked. To me this sounded like a great opportunity, tantamount to being able to snag up a bunch of bitcoin right before they issue bch for all btc holders. So upon doing further research on this potential opportunity, I ran across a post on this site that said the ethereum fork for January was being cancelled. WTF!?

After learning this, I proceeded to rain on my friend's parade and tell him that the fork he was anticipating for ether would actually not be happening. Obviously he was disappointed, but he then pointed out that Ether had something called Casper that was going to revolutionize and improve ether. I briefly read what I could on Casper and saw that it is basically going to be a proof of stake instead of a proof of work network. I kind of understand the idea behind this, but just based on my ability to comprehend a decently written summary of the information, I don't "understand" it like one who could explain it all without having read a summary first.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to hopefully get a relatively good interpretation of what all these variables mean for ether. It just seemed like a whole lot of news for one little moment in time for one cryptocurrency. First etherzero was the golden opportunity so I should stock up on ether to collect my etherzero, then that goes away, but still there is a consolation prize, which is that ether is introducting casper and that will be redefining.

For someone who doesn't have a natural understanding of the intricacies of cryptocurrencies and the economics that drive them, the introduction of more variables like the aforementioned etherzero and casper can be overwhelming when trying to evaluate the pros and cons of ether. So I guess what I'm just looking to hear from you guys is What are the ramifications of these two big pieces of news on the potential price and growth of Ether and why? and also just your general opinion on Ethereum and the minds behind it as opposed to other cryptos? If you're opposed to Ethereum, I'd love to hear why and if you know of a crypto that offers a better solution?

This post is an attempt for me to learn the actual relevance of the seemingly endless pieces of breaking news that come out on the different cryptos on a daily business. How does one navigate the important from the hyperbolic? What does it mean that the etherzero fork was cancelled? What does it say about ether? What does it say about the market, what does it say about the crypto climate?

Cheerio guys