Understanding what different distros offer and being able to make a educated decision about it. I looked around for a week or so until I found a arch distro that worked, took away the manual installation process as a complete noob, and wasn't all red flags straight away (the example is that a lot of ppl advised against manjaro). I ended up with garuda (which some ppl aren't a fan of because of chaotic-aur, but we have to start somewhere, haven't we) atm which works fine until I am confident enough to do a complete base arch installation the next time.

For me it's always been partly about ease of use, but the biggest thing is a superficial one. I just really enjoy a beautiful UI and slick UX. In these categories Windows is deep in the trash, but the bar for me is MacOS. An OS needs to make what I'm using it for easier and nicer, not have me spending time just making it work.

I haven't dipped my toe into the distro test pool in a few years, but every time I do I find myself spending more time sorting out the OS than just using it, and we'll, they just haven't been pretty to look at.

I think that's what it comes down to, distros can be decently developed but are often severely lacking in the design department.

I'd definitely love to know if any distros out there for that sort of vibe!

Getting some specific thing to work

I come from a Windows and Mac environment and I now happily use Linux Mint. It has a similar aesthetic and is really easy to use. I think not recommending newbies Arch would be a good start.

It's still software support. Yes, there are many great alternatives, but not being able to use apps like everyone and not being aplble to keep the apps you have is just too complicated for many

Many comments here largely underestimate an average non linux user.

Too much choice: 100 distros x 100 DEs x wayland vs x11 x 20 login managers x wayland vs x11 x ....