400+ installs in the past four years - discarded/donated business laptops that get fixed, cleaned, upgraded with cheapest SSDs and donated to predominantly tech illiterate users.

99% is ubuntu lts + ansible playbook that removes snap, disables A TON of update naggings, installs flatpak, coupla apps and systemd timer to autoupdate all flatpaks. this is the only thing that has low support requests, everything else we tried (mint, debian, fedora) has a disproportionately higher support request frequency (reinstalls, wifi, fix this, remove that, etc).

I totally could adapt debian to be as good or even better (fedora with the bi-annual versions is right out), but one of the important caveats is the user being able to install it with minimum hassle if needed and that just would not be doable.

I’d urge everyone ITT to look at the thing through the user’s eyes and not get lost in “no true scottsman” fallacies. the goal is to convert a user over, not to demonstrate how cool you are. once they know what’s what, you can sell them on fedora and atomic and whatnot, but not as a first step.

I don’t use ubuntu, have it on none of my stuff, and wouldn’t go out with you if you do. but it’s presently the only option for beginners for use on laptops that has a semblance of a modern desktop OS.

Mint.

Linux users tend to forget that using Konsole even once is overwhelming for even “seasoned PC users”

My roommate is a gamer, spends lots of time on PC´s and knows his shit. But he felt overwhelmed with the CachyOS Laptop i gifted him.

fedora cinnamon. it doesn’t have the issues with suspending that ubuntu and it’s derivatives have, and it’s easy to use and stable after the initial setup

I installed Mint on a newly acquired used Thinkpad for my mom, to get her used to it as her Macbook is showing signs of giving up. So far it was smooth sailing until one day the package system broke due to some conflicts (I had set up Signal via their PPA). I had already set up remote access so I could easily fix it for her in a matter of minutes, but she would never be able to fix it herself even though the instructions were clear. Other than this though, she enjoys it. But I still need to set up a couple of additional things, in particular file sync and some way of managing her photos.

I’d use Nixos, with flatpak for user packages

I was really successful with Debian stable. Zero maintenance fuss.

Fedora

Fedora

Manjaro. It’s really the most hassle-free distro that doesn’t have ancient software or risk breakage at every major version upgrade.

I know most of you can’t think for yourselves and let strangers on the internet do it for you, so I fully expect replies telling me why this is wrong.

I know you can’t help yourselves.

I installed Fedore Kinoite on my mom’s laptop. I would always install Fedora on someone elses computer because it’s what I use myself and have the most experience with it.

Linux mint. the go to linux distribution for recovering windows users.

To me it’s Zorin. It’s the easiest to use when you come from Windows

You know i always keep that thang (a ventoy thumb drive with Manjaro w/ Xfce, KDE plasma, and Gnome) on me. I find that DE is what matters most to new linux convertees, since its so visible. I also like the add/remove software with gui; command line stuff is eventually gonna come up, but letting them have something to look at is critical to start.

I sneak into my sysadmin’s office and install arch over his slackware install whenever he is out on PTO. I don’t think he knows yet who is doing it, but I am sure he secretly enjoys yelling at us while reinstalling.

I don’t see much love for Debian Stable + KDE in this thread, but that’s what I installed for my wife and she absolutely loves it. Don’t underestimate the power of a “boring” but rock solid foundation specifically designed not to break. Users new to Linux migrating away from Windows often really appreciate that.