I need to install an OS for someone whose first impulse upon seeing a screen is to touch it, because they are young and their first assumption is a touchscreen.
They know their way around Windows and Windows is probably tought to them at school, so Windows might actually be the smart move… but I fucking hate it.
Is ZorinOS or similar polished enough that I can leave it to someone whose tech literacy is centered around Roblox, TikTok and evading parental locks? I don’t want to normalize the Windows-bullshit. But I don’t want their first Linux-experience to be frustrating.
KDE Plasma offers a UI similar to Windows out of the box, I would say that’s a good start. Introduce them to the endless customisation options and they might start to dig it. Maybe take a distro aimed at gaming like Bazzite.
Other good options inlcude OpenSUSE or Linux Mint, the latter with another, but also similar feeling desktop.
Although caution is advised, this is a slippery slope to becoming a programmer.