Fedora. That’s what I run on my laptop and it’s great.

I would definitely choose Linux Mint 100% :p

I started off with it and its learning curve wasn't too steep. It uses Calamares for installation, features a built-in app store, and is very familiar to those coming from Windows.

I'd say mint is great for non tech people (90% of the time it's the DE and GUI apps that are important rather than the distro, but mint has good ones by default). For former windows power users I'd recommend CachyOS or Fedora. Either way, you can boot from USB for any of these as a live demo; I have images for all 3 + memtest on my ventoy USB.

I'd put LMDE on it, the familiarity of Mint with the stability of Debian and no fucking snaps.

I put Mint on my brother’s laptop when his hard drive died, he’s not a techie sort of person at all and has had no complaints.

Fedora Atomic.

Updates are stable.

They can't fuck it up.

My mom won't update Mint despite me showing her how, so I switched it to CachyOS since I'd be the one updating it anyway. At least it's not nearly as annoying for me to work on.

I work in an environment with a lot of people that are not very technically skilled. We run Ubuntu (GNOME) in their Laptops.

If I install Linux for family members etc. I install Ubuntu.

My reasoning is:
Ubuntu/.deb based systems are very wifely supported. If you google "how do u do X on Linux" most likely an answer tailored to Ubuntu may come up. Which is however mostly important if the Users will be doing some stuff themselves.

Also, I believe Desktops make a huge difference because that's how people interact with their Computer. And in my opinion it's not super important what desktop you start people on, its important it stays cohesive. My parents PC's run MATE for that stability* (and for the "classic" usage scheme they learned back in the XP days) but even GNOME has a pretty stable usage paradigm these days ...

Tl;dr: My reccomendation always is Ubuntu with a Desktop that resembles what they are used to.

* though with the MATE project seeming less active these days I've been looking for an alternative with low switching friction

My head tells me Linux Mint

my heart says listen to your head

My head tells me Linux Mint

If you want to do the least amount of tech support: Fedora Kinoite.

Hannah Montana Linux, obviously.

There is a good reason Mint is recommended as the no nonsense beginner distro. For someone more technical and willing to learn I might recommend Fedora.

One you get past those two distros you are pretty much in the realm where someone should be technical enough to choose their own distro and know what that means.

A Fedora variant of some sort since they are up-to-date in terms of features and have a low learning curve

Bazzite for young people, Mint for old people would be my first thought

Whenever this question comes up, I think the distro is less important than the desktop environment. If they feel more comfortable in Windows, go with something that provides KDE. If Mac, go with Gnome. Once they get used to it, let them go through the rite of passage that is distro hopping.

That said, and I know everyone recommends Mint or Ubuntu, and they're fine, but you could do better. I like the immutable distros for people who just want to use their computer without thinking about it. They aren't able to mess with anything important that keeps the computer running, and as long as they restart the computer, it's always up to date. It's like a Chromebook, which is the level most people are with computers.

Linux Mint is by far the smoothest experience I've had so far in trying Nobara, Debian, Manjaro otherwise.

Debian
With Mate desktop

Converted my non-tech wife to Mint without a single hiccup after her laptop crapped out - intuitive af for lifelong windows users - my kids will have never known another OS outside of their school issued chromebooks as they’re only just experiencing desktop environments

At my work, I convinced my boss to let us use Linux on a couple machines and, you guessed it: Mint. Everyone pretty much knows where to find things and it’s stable as a rock.

Initially I went with Ubuntu for my father in law, but he wouldnt stop messing with it and breaking things. So, last time it broke I installed arch with gnome, and now he doesnt know how to break it. Its been solid for over 2 years now on his 2010 macbook pro.

I've been installing Fedora Silverblue on family member's computers. No complaints so far. They're all non-technical users.

Likely either mint or popos

They tend to be the most liked by newcomers. Enough so that they don't miss windows, or want to try something else a week later.

What is the persons skill level and are both of you OK with you picking up the slack?

especially for new converts (or those that do not know what an OS is).. the curated store of applications makes it very easy to push people away from microsoft.

Mint has been my go-to, except for a couple of people who ended up with pop!_os.. mostly cause I showed them some options and that's the one they thought looked cool lol

Does Mint have screensaver and locking issues with Cinnamon?

I install Mint on computers of people that don't want Windows and that I have to help, but I personally use Debian and MATE. Recently I tried to use Cinnamon on Debian but the screensaver was not always working. Sometimes I was away for days and when I was coming back, my monitor was still on. And sometimes the screensaver got stuck, impossible to remove without restarting my session.

I have a friend that tried Mint too, and he basically told me the same thibg was happening to him.

I have not heard about this from other folks to whom I installed Mint, but since they're all very basic users that turn off their computer every time they are done, it never came up.

It would be my only issue with Mint for beginners. If they leave their computer running and come back later, there's a slight chance that the screensaver will either not be started, or very difficult to exit.

Mint is always my go to safe suggestion.

Depends what their level of technical comfort is. A friend of mine just got switched over to Kubuntu because it was Windows flavored enough for him to make the jump. He's more comfortable with tech but wasn't a Linux daily driver prior to that though.

For others, yeah, Mint is probably what I'd aim for. It kinda depends on the target demographic.

CachyOS, as it's the one I'm using.

By installing it for them, I can only expect I'll be also called upon to support it. Thus choosing the one I'm most familiar with right now.

NixOS and tell them to figure it out.

Are you committing to having her Linux setup to do everything her windows can do? Mint would be good at that point.

Bodhi!