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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Don't get mint if you'll get a remotely capable laptop or plan to game on it. Its so called 'modern' desktop environment (wich still defaults to the old X window system) feels awful to use imo and while the 'retro' ones are better there's no point in using them on a new laptop. Choose a distro that ships with KDE, GNOME, or a wlroots based desktop environment.
I've also had driver issues with it that didn't happen with Ubuntu or arch.
Pretty much every distro has a caveman compatible installer.
I can’t disagree with mint being a good distribution, because it is.
I personally think for someone just starting out in Linux that an immutable distribution like fedora silverblue (gnome) or kinoite (kde) is the safest route to take. They’re difficult to break. I personally use bazzite on my framework laptop and it’s basically hassle free. Not for everyone, but they work well.
Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora or one of the offshoots like Mint or Pop.
As long as you don't go too far into the weeds with Arch, Silverblue or NixOS, You're probably going to have a pretty decent experience, as long as you don't dig too far under the hood too early most things that you're going to want to try are just going to work out of the gate.
I usually recommend Zorin OS to noobs, but personally I prefer arch based
Fedora KDE. It's easy to setup, modern, customizable and fast. Only issue is that it doesn't come with proprietary codecs, so that could be a problem.
Second would be Mint, it's only flaws is that it ships an older kernel (might be a pain) and uses X11 (insecure).
Install a few and see which one you like the most. You can install several distros at the same time and they'll all appear in the boot menu. When I was deciding which distro to use on my laptop, I was dual booting Debian and Fedora, with one /home partition shared between both of them.
Mint and Fedora are good choices IMO. Everyone is different though :)
Mint was my beginner distro and is what I recommend. In my experience I was able to find a solution for most of my beginner problems by searching for a solution for mint.
to those suggesting mint, any particular reasons to choose between Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce versions?
I personally use Cinnamon, which has a similar feeling to Win10. Very satisfied with it on my desktop. From what I've heard XFCE also feels similar to Windows, but I simply have just used Cinnamon ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Cinnamon or Xfce are more similar to Windows' user interface. Between those two, Xfce is more lightweight than Cinnamon. MATE is more for people who liked GNOME 2 and want that interface over what the current GNOME is.
Cinnamon would probably be the most friendly as a new user, but I personally haven't used it in years and I'm not familiar with its current state.
I always recommend to beginners ElementaryOS. The name being coincidental. It is a relatively simple looking but very very elegant and polished interface. Give it a try.
I've never noticed any hate for Mint, it seems to be a pretty good option. It'll easily run on anything that was able to run Windows 10 (probably 8 too) and the default desktop environment Cinnamon is easy to navigate if you're coming from Windows. Even if you have some obscure piece of hardware with Mint being based on Ubuntu there's probably a tutorial you can follow to get it working.
Any Debian/Ubuntu or fedora based distro will do you fine. I personally ran PopOS when I built my computer earlier this year and didn't have any issues with it
Linux mint (Cinnamon is my fav). You can never go wrong.
Maybe
Debian all day...
All these shiny new distros promising to make things easier and better... But nothing is easier and better than 30 years of rock solid stability and support.
Depending on how new the laptop is, it might not work on debian stable. Check your compatibility
From personal experience with a new laptop, the intel meteor lake platform didnt work well with debian stable