Normally I’d recommend mint, pop, or fedora, but since you want to switch it up and are looking for “windows with sex appeal,” you could look into AnduinOS. It’s just an Ubuntu reskin made to look like windows 11, so it should have the stability and compatibility of Ubuntu. What makes it interesting to me though is that the lead dev actually works at Microsoft, so that lends it some legitimacy compared to other skins

Maybe Aurora by Universal Blue?

It's based off of Fedora Silverblue, so it's atomic, rock solid and basically guaranteed to work (more secure by design as well). But uses KDEPlasma instead of Gnome and has a bunch of improvements here and there, including proprietary codecs and Nvidia drivers preinstalled (latter depending on the image you choose)

I learn a ton on Nobara, but I'm not so sure it's a forever distro

I think you should cruise this guy's channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg6gPGh8HU2U01vaFCAsvmQ

He's very fair and uses all operating systems. I'm almost certain he's had a video on this exact question.

I used to recommend Ubuntu. Now that immutable distributions exist, I prefer to recommend openSUSE Aeon or Fedora Silverblue to new users. However, check this website before installing Linux.

https://endof10.org/

Every time I've tried Kubuntu it's been a mess. Though it's been a couple years since I subjected myself to it. It's still going to use Snaps, so there's that.

If they want bulletproof and up to date, Fedora KDE.

You're asking for a distro to best fit certain criteria; what's better for you.

What you're going to get is everyone waving the flag of their favourite distro and selling you on it as a solution; what's better for them.

ZorinOS or the recent AnduinOS can be very Windows like with modernish windows sex appeal as you call it.

Edit: If a gamer you could add Nobara with its own theme or bazzite with KDE.

Get an immutable distro. You’ll never need to touch it again.

You have had many answers, all of them revolving around Debian / Ubuntu. Yet it doesn't give the "like-windows" esperience. It's More like "slightly windows-flavored Linux".

For a more Windows-like Linux, which helped me transition easily because I retained muscle memory, is Zorin OS.

Linux. Mint.

Everytime.

Fedora Atomic (immutable OS), install it and you can swap between Atomic, Kinoite, Bazzite, and any other atomic distribution easily.

Best I can offer is Hannah Montana linux

I just switched to a ublue distro (bluefin) and think it's great. These are designed from the ground up to be an "install it for a family member or friend and never have to touch it again" experience. They are based on Fedora. Bluefin has been the most trouble-free install of linux I've ever tried. I can't say enough good things about it.

I would go with Aurora (essentially bluefin but with KDE instead of Gnome), unless they do a lot of gaming, in which case Bazzite-kde would probably work best (bazzite is more up-to-date which can mean more instability).

These are set up to use flatpak with a software center, so all gui apps can be installed from there and is similar to windows. It updates everything automatically in the background and only requires rebooting whenever you want to switch to the updated system. Also the immutable nature makes it hard to break, but if something does go wrong it makes it easy to roll back to the previous working install. There are also GTS versions of bluefin and aurora available, which are pinned to more stable releases so there's even less chance of breakage.

Live USB installs aren't stable yet so that might be an issue if you want to make sure hardware works before install, but you can install to a usb harddrive and boot off of that to check it out that way.

Fedora KDE is a good one.

https://fedoraproject.org/kde/

I'm personally a fan of Debian. Default KDE isn't bad looking from what I can remember (I personally don't use it - I neither hate or love it just because I love XFCE). I'm personally a big XFCE fan, but you do have to do some work to get it working good, and there are still jank parts here and there.

While no distro is completely set and forget, I think Debian Stable is as close as you can get. Once you install it and get it working the way you want (depending on your setup, you might encounter minor issues as with any distro), it will pretty much stay that way until you upgrade to the next version, and you can go up to 5 years before upgrading.

I would recommend you use the KDE (or whatever DE you want) live installer, though, as the default installer is quite unintuitive. You can find it in the list of installers at https://www.debian.org/distrib/.

I've never used Kubuntu specifically, but I would personally avoid Ubuntu these days if just because of Snaps. Also, Ubuntu is heavily bloated - base Ubuntu is almost unusable in a VM now, while vanilla GNOME and PopOS run well in VMs on the same machine. Personally, when I need to test Ubuntu builds, I always prefer working with PopOS.

Overall, I'd say if you don't end up using Debian (I don't blame you - while I like it, you might not), just please don't use anything Ubuntu-based that isn't Mint or PopOS.

Well there are no operating systems that you can install and forget, unless they never plan to go online with the machine. They all need updating which can be set automatically. The only problem is if it requires manual intervention, sometimes updates don't go as planned, then a roll-back might be necessary. They could try an immutable linux distribution if they are worried about screwing up their installs or something. Fedora kinoite may be their thing, or Bazzite which is based on that.

Focus on the DE instead of the distro. There used to be one that has "windows look" as a goal.

If you want a set it and forget it distro to never touch his computer again, then consider going a Ublue distro. Aurora (only KDE), or Bazzite (choose the KDE image) if he does gaming.

Debian is always the forgotten choice. You can install kde at time of install. It's stable and can be upgraded in the background automatically even between major versions. Doesn't have snaps making hell for the user. For any apps they need the newest version of Flatpak is right there in Discover software center.

Another vote for Aurora.

Universal Blue in general has been really solid, I remember one time in the last year or two when there's been any need for manual intervention. And that came with a notification after boot, with a link to instructions that were all copy-pastable as-is to the terminal.

I want to try something windows like with more sex appeal.

Elaborate?

I don't want to have to touch this computer again.

This person will undoubtedly need help and if they can't help themselves you will be the one helping them. Mint is best-case for ease of use so your requirements are a bit contradictory.

If you want windows with sex apeal, the KDE desktop environment's treated me pretty well. I'm using Fedora, though you could get it from other distros too

Kubuntu is excellent for the stability imo. Super sane and low-demand defaults make for a reliable/enjoyable experience
I only use gentoo now so I can't offer suggestions other than maybe alpine for servers