I simply didn’t see it that way. Sure, the Linux community doesn’t necessarily agree on which version is the best for new users. But we tend to agree on reliable distros which are good to get started on.

Brand New user? Unless they have a specific task that the PC needs to do, then first priority is reliability. Off the top of my head, Debian is reliable as hell, Ubuntu is about the same and fine but not my preference (very dislike snap proprietary bs that almost no one uses anyways), Fedora is a common use case and while I haven’t used their desktop in a while, I rather like the rhel based distros they are reliable but keep things a little newer than say Debian.

The point is that I disagree with you entirely. You see the choice of distributions as daunting and a scary thing. I don’t. I see the choice as freeing.

It has never mattered to me personally what version of Linux someone is using, or what path they think I should go down, I do my own research for my own purposes and come back with my own options(maybe my 90s rebel inner child still exists). Admittedly, perhaps someone needs more guidance when running away from Microslop and I could help as long as I know what package manager the distro is using.

Now, you also say that Linux isn’t mainstream already? There are entire career fields built on it, why the hell is it not considered mainstream. DevOps typically uses Linux heavily, might be as simple as an install script, or a full k8s deployment. And shoot running docker servers for backing up your files via VPN? What about 25 TB of jellyfin movies/shows. Sorry, but even if not used as a desktop, a Linux server can go a long way and do a ton of good.