Get her the same one you have so you can see what she sees and help her. Or standard Ubuntu. For real. Don't overthink it. She's gonna be interested in your help.

I've never really used Ubuntu, but I'm going to agree with others here. If its what you use, it would be better in the sense that it would be much easier for you to give her phone assistance when she needs it, rather than giving her something you're not used to and possibly having to go over and troubleshoot for her.

If she wants something more in the line with Windows, you could try Kubuntu, but I think the rigging behind KDE is pretty complicated for a casual user. You may want to help her set up the way she wants her desktop to look at first if you go this route. The only other Windows-like desktop is Cinnamon, but Cinnamon-Wayland is still in alpha and once they officially drop it that could make more work for you later.

Admittedly, I have 0 experience with the Unity DE, so that'd be your call if you think you can familiarize it for her.

Linux Mint or Debian running Cinnamon DE. Stable and predictable.

I put my mom on Linux Mint Cinnamon (Ubuntu based) looks a lot like windows with minimal bells and whistles. Mostly just works unless you have bleeding edge hardware. Most Ubuntu flavours should also work. I'm suggesting Ubuntu based distros due to the fact that most media codecs, fonts and drivers are installed or easy to install.

Seconding and thirding the use of an immutable OS. I specifically like Bazzite Gnome. People know it for gaming, but many don't know it has a fantastic desktop mode, suitable for children, mums and grandmas.

Almost all the software a casual user needs is available from their Flatpak App Store, and it's pretty as hell (looks very Apple-like and shiny). I have been using it for about a year and I am still impressed how fluid, polished and solid everything feels.

I had first installed Mint on my Dad's laptop, but then switched to Fedora KDE after a while 'cause wayland has better security than x11, and then now running an atomic distro called 'Secureblue' (KDE) on it while disabling confinement of user namespaces for Flatpak applications. All this while, he didn't find any trouble switching over from one to another.

PS. I'd have stayed with Mint if Wayland worked on it.

Use the exact same setup you have, then when she calls and asks you how to do something then you either already know or can check on your own machine!

I recommend LFS. It’s the most user friendly distro there Is.

In all seriousness, a Ubuntu derivative is gonna be the easiest, mostly because it’s what you use OP

Ubuntu. Simply because you use it as well. You will be the primary tech support. So something that you are familiar with is important.

If her router supports it I would set up a VPN and ssh on her computer so that you can help her. Maybe RDP or Sunshine/Moonlight as well.

I moved my mother to Mint a few months ago. I have not had a single tech support call. She uses it daily. About a week in I asked her how it was going. She liked that printing worked more reliably and wished the scroll bars in Facebook were a bit thicker. Her printer used to show as offline sometimes in Windows but that issue has gone away under Mint. I was going to look for a theme with thicker scroll bars but she told me not to bother.

Granted she was a Firefox and Thunderbird user already so that helped with the transition.

It uses X and not Wayland

Zorin OS

My mom was not interested in the surface cause she only need Mail, Browser, Whatsapp web and here Background image. So she used Ubuntu with the side bar as good as with Mint. Same goes for gmy Granny. I propose, Ask what possibilities are important for here - Do not ask about Application - and show here afther that where to do things.

For showing the new PC. Do it with some work she has to do. Learning curve is way better thatway.

I installed Debian on my dad's laptop recently,

Ubuntu all the way

My grandma got along with Mint for Facebook browsing and KPatience.

If your mom is more into using real apps, plus the Windows UI, and you're comfortable with some setup, I'd highly recommend Debian 13 with KDE Plasma and Flatpak, with the Flatpak-Discover integration. That'll allow her to use lightweight, stable apps from apt, or more recent, but larger apps from Flathub, and install it all herself through Discover. Honestly, there should be a distro for that.

I'd be using that myself if it weren't for some very specific software I need from the AUR.

I would put her on the latest Ubuntu LTS, make a single-user Ubuntu pro account so she keeps getting security updates and don't do major OS updates on that machine for the next decade. You and her can decide which DE, either Gnome (more mac-like) or Budgie, Mate, or KDE (more windows-like. Those are my win-like preferences in that order)

Seconding (or third-ing, or twelfth-ing) the recommendation for Linux Mint, but also gonna throw one in for MX Linux if the hardware is older.

Depends from her hardware but generally Linux mint I install for everyone who is not familiar at all with linux.

uBlue Bluefin or Aurora. Tested and approved. I moved my dad on Bluefin one year ago, no issues, it just works for his use case (90% of the time in a browser, light photo editing in Krita, some text editing). No maintenance, no updates, no actual knowledge needed as a daily user, just a single reboot once a week to boot the freshest system image.

And more importantly, it keeps on working despite his talent for fucking up every single piece of software he lays his hands on.

https://projectbluefin.io/

https://getaurora.dev/en

She is getting her masters in nursing online so it def needs to be able to accommodate that

Is there any specialist software she needs, or is it browser based?

i recommend version 6 😄

I would choose Mint.

Another vote for Mint.

Linux Mint.

Something immutable with VNC for tech support

Though I'm disappointed at how ugly Cinnamon and all it's themes are, Linux Mint (with Cinnamon).

But as someone else said, probably ought to dual-boot or have a Windows VM just to be safe.

Mint is one of the best options for your mom. People switching from Windows to Linux are their main target if I remember correctly

Linux Mint Debian!

i use mint as my first and im planning to get my mum on it too. its super user friendly

Linux Mint is so nice.

I would turn off "Secure Boot" in BIOS before doing the upgrade.

It officially works, but can throw in unnecessary challenges - and Mom probably isn't traveling with national secrets next week anyway.

Linux Mint, as many have suggested, but Fedora would also be a good choice if there's any bleeding-edge hardware not supported otherwise.

Zorin or Mint.

Zorin is a bit more dumbed down, so there is no way for normal people to do anything wrong and a lot of things work just like they would expect them to. What really shocked me is when my dad downloaded some exe from the internet, double clicked it, installed and ran the software... No other distro supports that I think. On the other hand, when he had a specific wish, there was no way to change that, even though there are other distros/de's where I know you can. You mostly have to take it as it is given. Streamlined might be the appropriate word.

But mint is also very good for people that come from windows. No personal experience with it though.

Personally I prefer KDE over what my other two suggestions offer, but I've noticed that there is a lot of fiddling around involved when setting it up for specific personal preferences. If I do a fresh install, I have to go through all the kde apps and into their settings and change some behaviour here and there, which takes a whole weekend. I don't like the defaults, but at least everything can be configured to nearly perfectly suit me. But I would not want to do that for a relative, who is not tech-savy and patient enough to do it thenselves. Thats like a constant part-time tech support job.