edit: Fedora it is then!
He will be running the AMD 9800 X3D w/ RX 9070 XT, B850 motherboard.
I am deciding between either Fedora (probably KDE) and Bazzite (also KDE), but I’m not sure whether an atomic distro would be better/worse for a newbie.
As far as I understand, atomic distros can be easily rolled back after an update, but you are unable to use apt/dnf/etx, you need to use Flatpak, I think. Would that be limiting for the average user? Also, does Bazzite have better driver support for newer AMD hardware compared to Fedora?
Is your friend a beginner? If so, Mint or Pop_OS! should be considered, since they’re both Ubuntu-based. Bazzite is not recommended due to its atomic nature being kinda wonky, and Fedora I wouldn’t recommend due to IBM being a bunch of stubborn bums about antiquated technology (i.e. X11) that works fine, compared to newer stuff (i.e. Wayland) which is not ready for prime time at all.
If he isn’t, and knows what he’s doing, CachyOS is a good choice, but I’d recommend he use Cinnamon as his DE, since it looks similar to Windows Vista or Windows 7. It does have both X11 and Wayland, but it’s X11 by default.
Agree except Bazzite is good for the right kind of non-technical person if they have someone setting it up. PopOs is the safe choice though.
Pop OS has always been slow for me, I don’t know why.