LMDE

Ubuntu and its derivatives are quite solid. My favorite ispopOsS which has grown to have a nice identity for itself.

Don't know which one to recommend but I would never recommend Ubuntu. It is full of bugs to me. I used it for years without issues but now it is impossible for me. Installed it on my girlfriend's laptop recently and she has the same bugs I had years ago when I dropped it : network disconnects randomly and she has to reboot, bluetooth won't reconnect sometimes... I can help but it is definitely not working out of the box for users who are not into tech.

I would highly recommend fedora kinoite, it's immutable so the system doesn't break without you trying very hard, well configured out of the box, and uses flatpak for apps so the system can be stable and the apps can be updated regularly!

I've got PopOs on my personal (framework) and work (System76) laptop. It's been super stable. Specially if you don't mess around with different PPAs.

just installed bazzite and after switching to x11 (one button thing) its the first district to have no screen tearing, no stutter

though this is a very gaming focused district, so maybe not for you

its derived from universal blue so maybe check that out

A lot of folks would recommend Ubuntu as a start but it’s very bloated af so starting on Linux Mint or Zorin/Elementary OS (if you want a windows/macos experience in your distro) would be a great start imo

If you have to ask it probably means the answer is one of the following:

• Mint
• Ubuntu
• Pop!_os

In that order. Mint will be most likely the answer if your hardware is pretty normal. Ubuntu will be the answer if you're willing to give up some security and privacy for east of use (pro-tip: if this is your mentality I'd recommend a different OS and dual booting while you learn). Pop!_os will be the answer if you don't need super up to date software and want all your hardware to work because you have something odd

Personally I would strongly advise towards Mint. I used to direct people away from it but I've learned this was a bias I had against them for mishandling a security thing a long time ago that they've since become leaders in the security space for general use Linux operating systems.

My advice is to just look at the screenshots of a few mainstream ones and pick one that looks the most usable.

A few:

• Mint - Can't go wrong if you like traditional desktop.
• Pop OS - Great for gaming (and many other things).
• Zorin - Never used it, but it's supposedly easy, and very polished.
• Ubuntu - Has many haters (including myself), because of nuances, but honestly it'll do the job just fine.

Fedora

What do you want to do with it?

This request is impossible to fulfill

• people that dont care about wayland etc. may use Linux Mint
• people that want a server will choose Debian
• people dont care about malware will choose ubuntu
• people that dont care about all of that will use an Atomic Fedora Spin like Silverblue

you just described zorin.

@PoliticallyIncorrect Fedora Silverblue, for sure.

For what it's worth, Q4OS was easy to set up and has been my daily driver since late 2018.