If you were to install Linux on a laptop for someone, what distro would you use?

My head tells me Linux Mint, but my heart says listen to your head. Why is this hard? 😂

Fedora Atomic.

Updates are stable.

They can’t fuck it up.

Respectfully huge disagree. Standard Fedora would be better (and is my personal recommendation) since a bunch of administrative command syntax would be different with Atomic. The internet’s going to show troubleshooting advice for the former 9 times out of 10.

They’re both terrible choices for a beginner - constant version churn every six months confuses newcomers, some initial brokenness after every new release - Fedora would be the last distro I’d install.

What would you suggest instead? Those initial roadbumps with major releases shouldn’t happen at all really, but I don’t personally see bi-annual version updates as a confusing thing since major companies are commonly shipping yearly version updates now.

Mint. They can stay on the same release for 5 years, if they desire, or upgrade every 2 if they want. Binary-only drivers are easily integrated, it has a polished experience, integrated backups, and anyone that has used Windows can navigate Cinnamon relatively easily.