From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word “Linux” in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
I started with ubuntu-based distros (Zorin and Bodhi in particular) and I think one of the greatest challenges I faced as a new user was understanding the various different ways of installing programs: apt and apt-get, ppas, gdebi package installer, compiling from source… and more later came snaps, flatpaks and appimages. This dispersive situation makes the entry bar too high for some users. On Arch based distros instead you have the AUR which includes almost any software available on linux and with graphical installers like Pamac new users are eased in this wild world. So in the end I’d say Manjaro would be my top recomendation, it’s nice community and huge noob-friendly documentation are a plus. Probably with XFCE, because it’s intuitive and easily customizable.
I second this. It is really difficult to get along with the different package sources.
I can recommend EndeavourOS which is basically ARCH with an UI installer. As a desktop environment I can recommend KDE because you can customize a lot.