I use Ubuntu on my work laptop and I'm definitely a "power user" so I can't comment on the easiest distro for a newbie, but I will say that the biggest issue with choosing your Linux distro is making sure that it will work with the hardware you're going to run it on.
For example, Ubuntu is a fantastic OS, but if you're using LTS (the recommended release) on a new laptop/desktop with Thunderbolt 3 or the latest Intel graphics - be prepared for some under the hood tinkering. This is exactly why vendors like sytem76 exist - there's no guarantee that off the shelf hardware will work with your Linux distro until the driver updates get back into the mainline kernels.
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I use Ubuntu on my work laptop and I'm definitely a "power user" so I can't comment on the easiest distro for a newbie, but I will say that the biggest issue with choosing your Linux distro is making sure that it will work with the hardware you're going to run it on.
For example, Ubuntu is a fantastic OS, but if you're using LTS (the recommended release) on a new laptop/desktop with Thunderbolt 3 or the latest Intel graphics - be prepared for some under the hood tinkering. This is exactly why vendors like sytem76 exist - there's no guarantee that off the shelf hardware will work with your Linux distro until the driver updates get back into the mainline kernels.