Where Ubuntu falters, Linux Mint shines
My personal computer only runs Linux nowadays. Given my user profile, i have been using distros that come from Debian. I thought that I would settle with vanilla Ubuntu, since my computer is a laptop and those are a bit tricky. The problem lies with Canonical and their choices regarding software management. As a user, I still do not understand what makes Snap better than Flatpak, and I dislike having three different package managers on the same computer. It defeats the purpose of having a package manager.
On the other hand, I am not an adventurous user, and it is always my preference to have a distro that does most of the heavy lifting for me. I know that a great deal of the Linux experience is tinkering and adapting it to your liking, but this is my personal computer and I sometimes feel lazy. Because of this, I decided to give Linux Mint 22.2 a try. It is going great.
Mint still depends on Ubuntu. Having an NVIDIA graphics card, an Ubuntu-based distro makes many things a bit easier for me. Ideally, I would rather use LMDE or Debian itself. However, Mint does a lot of good work in changing or removing the things that make Ubuntu usage annoying. Where Ubuntu falters, Linux Mint shines.
The new version of Linux Mint basically makes everything on my computer work as it should. Yes, there is still a hiccup or two sometimes, but the user experience is way less annoying. The interface looks clean for me, the update manager works beautifully, and I do not need to look in three different places for the software I need to have to be installed and updated. Nothing is perfect, and I sometimes miss some of the flair and aesthetics of a desktop environment like KDE. But cinnamon seems to get the job done pretty well and the RAM consumption is negligible.
So, for now and until further notice, it would be Linux Mint, and not Ubuntu, the distro I may recommend for anyone looking to switch from Windows. it is a very good compromise between giving you more freedom, standing out of your way and holding your hand for some processes in case you need it to do so.