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?
The most unpopular here is Ubuntu. It is however very stable and has flatpak like things called snaps that everyone hates because its not called flatpak.
So is fedora. Opensuse. Bazzite. Debian even
So why Ubuntu then?
Fedora is IBM. Opensuse is okay but nothing special. Bazzite, I don’t know what that is. I guess everybody has a fringe favorite. Mine is slackware. Debian is okay if you have a bit more experience.
Ubuntu is a simple install with a slick interface and simply works. They get a lot of grief from the distro snobs but for a beginner I can think of no distro better suited.
So is about every os by now. Ubuntu was special back in 2010 maybe. Now, no anaconda installer is the exception if you wannabe the arch btw guy, not the rule
What is the exception by now, is breaking your entire OS with a rust rewrite, forcing a propriatery package format even when the user requests the normal package from the package installer, hiding security updates behind a subscription (even if its just your email), and putting Amazon ads in the OS
When 90% of even niche Linux distros like Rhino, Vanilla or mint or Endeavour or Cachy or even fucking Artix have the same experience as Ubuntu, I’d rather recommend someone an Os that hasn’t shown it would go the Microsoft way if it had the opportunity to