memes

I intentionally didn't include it in my post because I didn't want the wave of differing opinions to distract from my point.

Personally, on balance, I would suggest Mint (Cinammon) for a new user, especially if it's an Internet stranger. Of course, I expect many, many replies disagreeing or explaining why I'm wrong and should pick ... something else.

There are loads of distros that are, or claim to be, friendly to new users. As with everything, all have advantages and disadvantages. My kids use Bazzite on their laptops because I can support them and deal with anything unexpected. I wouldn't recommend it to a random person because the installation isn't as friendly as others, and it's not as prevalent, so there is less support via search engines. The forums are quite active, and the community is friendly, but many folk would rather look for an existing answer than ask anything new. Then of course there's Ubuntu (with Snap et al), Pop!_OS, Elementary, Deepin etc etc. We could probably discuss the merits and detractors of each forever, just like currently happens in so many threads on Lemmy, Reddit and others.

So, why would I suggest Mint? Simply because it's not a wrong answer. It's easy to get, easy to install, has a great and welcoming community, and serves as a great place to introduce users to the ecosystem. After using it for a while, they can make their own, more informed choice of their next distro. There are plenty of other not wrong distros to choose from, but Mint is the one I would suggest.