Linux mint

MacOS.

I hate Apple, and I do not like how they operate. But I cannot deny how user friendly their OS is, how affordable their machines are (Mac mini) and how even those who do not know how to use a PC, can pick them up and use them.

Linux Mint is my second choice

Only Linux which feels like a normal PC, and 99% of features can be installed via UI. There are holes, and I feel an immutable OS would fill this niche better, but for now this is my number 2.

If you are mainly gaming, Bazzite. For everything else, Fedora.

If they are not savvy enough to do troubleshooting themselves or have no one to ask for help, I think macOS would be the best (assuming money isn’t an issue). Otherwise, Linux Mint.

Idk if I'd even recommend anything anymore. Microsoft shit is easier but more likely to just nuke itself or destroy your data. MacOS is stable and user friendly but prohibitively expensive. Linux is generally great, but requires a level of teach savvy that most people are actively afraid of. I'm so tired.

Apple for sure. I dislike them personally, but their OS has a great UI/UX and is very user friendly. And their stuff just works together really seamlessly.

But, if all they do is browse the Internet, Linux is also a good option as long as you're ready to set it up for them and answer questions. I switched my 75yo mom to Mint when Win10 hit EoL and she hasn't had an issue.

At this point genuinely linux. For everyday shit like browsing, mailing, whatever, for sure.

Apple is just... Apple. I guess. Windows is an ad. 

Linux is the new "it just works".

TempleOS

Linux, I'd say Manjaro, Linux Mint or Bazzite

MacOS

i just erased windows 11 and replaced it with Linux Mint Cinnamon- not easy for me as I haven't used anything but apple ecosystem since forever, but I'm extremely happy with it, and the upgrade in privacy is worth it to me even if it weren't an excellent OS, which it definitely is. you just have to be willing to learn new things

The amount of people who spend thousands of dollars on MacBooks to just open up Safari makes me want to believe the average person could just have a ThinkPad with Mint or regular Ubuntu and be just fine. But the reality is if you run into a solvable issue on Windows or a MacBook, usually the degrees of separation from someone (friend or family member) who can solve that issue is much, much, much lower. I just seriously doubt most people can conduct the bare minimum of troubleshooting to be able to even search the internet for easy solutions. Can people learn? Absolutely! Are they going to go through the trouble? Probably not.

But who knows, as personal computing becomes more expensive and system requirements stop people from updating. Maybe more people look to Linux as an alternative and perhaps we'll reach a critical mass where my previous statement doesn't matter.

Mint and no shit.

Are we assuming this person has never used any other operating system before?

Because I do think a lot of the perception of Linux being more difficult is just because people who grew up on Windows or MacOS have gotten so used to those that the inertia of trying something new is what's hard about it.

I'm a Windows hater, but I can't in good conscience recommend Mac because of the vendor lock-in, and I'm not going to recommend Linux to someone just needing a computer to use when they need it.

Let's not joke ourselves. I would, however, offer to install Enterprise LTSC and disable as much of the telemetry as possible. After that point, their privacy is in their own hands, but I'll offer as many tips as I can.

If they are even slightly technically inclined and I know them enough to know they are capable of any level of troubleshooting, I'd recommend Mint.

MacOS if they can afford it. Otherwise Linux Mint.

I'll just fucking say it. Windows. Maybe Mac if you want, but that's gonna cost a fair bit more. Skip Linux. Everyone here circlejerks it like it's the best thing since 3.25" floppy drives, but it's a pain in the ass for the above average user, let alone someone who isn't tech savvy. The first time they encounter a problem and have to open the terminal they are going to shut off their computer and burn their house down. Unless your friend wants to learn Linux, then I'd advise you to steer them clear, regardless of what the crowd here has to say about it.

Windows is clean and simple. People here will say otherwise and they'll point to strawman arguments that don't have anything to do with the average user, like user telemetry or shutdown/restart on update. Windows wouldn't be dominant if it wasn't user friendly. If my grandfather can figure out how to install his bible verse software on his Windows PC, then your friend is going to be just fine.

Edit: echo "⬇️" | figlet

Ask them what they want to do.

Gaming? Windows. SteamOS is great but there are too many games that require Windows.

Creatives? MacOS. Yeah, you can do all that (and more!) on Windows machines, but the creative space is largely all Mac all the time.

Office Productivity? Anything. Libre Office is cross platform.

Want to complain about how you don't fit in and it would be a better place if the world would just accommodate you? Linux.

Fedora, now it's shockingly easy to use.

I silently replaced windows in the home PC and it took 2 months for the tech illiterate SO to say "WTF, why you put Apple on this PC, I thought you hated them" (put same username/password, same wallpaper, even Microsoft Edge)

At work I was shocked that I could login directly as user@windows.domain without any extra configuration. Plain vanilla fresh install, typed my active directory account for laughs, it worked 😲

Also at work I was shocked to see that I could just run the exe of the windows-only accounting software and everything works. I even installed LibreOffice in wine, lol (the accounting software needs soffice.exe for generating spreadsheets). I could even install foxit reader for windows 😂 (sorry, all the Linux PDF readers completely suck when printing, I need previews and booklet and all the extra features)

Windows. If you do anything work related, you need to be able to use excel and word. It's still annoying shit, but it works and it's more stable/easier to use than linux. I have tried both. I say this with poison spitting out of my mouth, because I don't like the Microsoft AI and forced advertisement shit, but overall, the OS performs better, because desktop linux still has massive problems in 2026.

The linux community may claim that you can "do anything" on a linux system and "make it your own", but if you're not a 24-year-old tech god who can code, it's unfeasible. I tried several times to go on forums and ask for help regarding certain customization changes. Sometimes I got help, but it was very complicated. Most of the time, nobody answered in those threads or if they did, they blamed me for the "problem" and wrote stuff that didn't help at all. At some point you gotta go: Okay, this is nice and everything, but I want to play or work at some point and this is not capable of doing at least one of the two. And there is no official tech support to help you out if you need it. When I simply wanted to create 1 bug report, I had to create 4 different accounts on different bug report websites and they all got closed, because "it's not my department" or - I shit you not - "it's a serious problem and bug, but I don't have time to fix it".

I tried Linux Mint Cinnamon. The installer was so fucking shit, that it didn't recogneize the hard drive and therefore - without warning or telling me where it would install - tried to install itself on the very same USB-stick the install files (.iso) were on, erasing the install files in the process and crashing the entire install, while temporarily bricking the fucking system. The promise of "games are working now on Steam/linux due to Proton compatibility overlay" are greatly exaggerated. I tried starting about 15 games and of those only 2 would even start up. If you would post on the discussion forums, other (linux?) users would just respond with "but it works for me". Well, gosh, thanks you piece of shit, but that doesn't help me identify or fix the problem. And trying to run Word or Excel? "Oh man, you need a virtual machine just to run that, bro! You can't run it natively, because xhgaoohofa. Who even needs that, bro? Use LibreOffice, bro! It's enough, bro!" It's fucking shit. Get it running, I need to work. And your 500 shitty fonts in LibreOffice won't convince anyone that you're a professional. I want fucking Times New Roman and Calibri out of the box, because that's the standard for my office work, sorry.

Using Waterfox was a shit show. It's faster than regular Firefox, but then it proceeded to delete all of my passwords by default every time I closed it, without asking whether I wanted to do that or not beforehand. Then I had to find the fucking hidden option to disable that. I did. But this piece of shit software has a bug. So it ignores that I selected that "hidden" option and continues to delete all my account data and passwords. And linux bros will be like: "Oh, that's your fault, bro! Our linux programs have no bugs, bro [despite it being listed as an official bug on the fucking GitHub page - but they don't read that]! You have to use an external password manager, bro! It's totally safe to insert all your account data into a program from an unknown software developer without back-ups, bro!"

I can't even change the fucking window closing button design in linux mint without changing the theme of the entire fucking system. The buttons on there are MacOS-inspired and fucking tiny. I want easy to click big boxes like on Windows.

I still got that linux laptop, but I rarely use it, because everything is a fucking chore or doesn't work out of the box. The update manager - now that thing is GOOD! But I just want to set it to do update shit automatically and I can't. So every time I use this fucking system, I have to spend my time on authorizing those fucking update installs with my password manually.

Then there is the forking issue. There are 100000000 distros, because the developers are autistic, antisocial shitheads who don't understand that 1 distro with more integrated customization options would be sufficient and more efficient. So they all want their own distro and create a confusing mess where nobody understands what's happening anymore except for a few IT guys who can troubleshoot the shit they're fabricating on a regular intervall. What if I want to work AND game on the same system? I don't want to choose between linux mint and fucking bazzite. I want the functionality of both in one system. That's what Windows has managed to do for over 30 years now. Get your shit together. Same for the support. When I have a problem with the Linux Mint install launcher, I have to be redirected from Linux Mint support to fucking Ubuntu support, because the launcher is actually fucking Ubuntu and then Ubuntu redirects me to a special Ubuntu launcher support site where I have to file another report and then the developers/maintainers there redirect me to their personal GitHub page to file another report with another entirely different bug report form there only to tell me afterwards that s/he has no time to fix it, even though the bug is legit and then CLOSES the bug report. Excuse me, but get 1 (!) support website please and redirect reports INTERNALLY. I will NEVER file a bug report for a linux system again, that I can tell you. Go FUCK yourselves, linux mint developers!

And I don't understand the fucking hype of all these idiots around Steam. Steam is not open-source, it's not free (you have to buy the games with a big fee % for Valve). It's a multi-billion dollar for-profit, closed-system, privately owned company that has said "fuck you" to everyone who wanted Half Life 3 or the next Left 4 Dead for years. Despite having BILLIONS of USD at their disposal to make it happen. Don't get me started on fucking kid gambling with loot boxes and microtransactions in Counter Strike etc. Fuck these idiots! The dominant gaming market and launcher should be free, open source, non-profit and owned by everyone. I don't want to finance another yacht for Gaben. I want to finance more games, compatibility updates, optimized hardware drivers, remasters of retro games and so on.

To be honest, I hate a lot of todays technology industry and I have good fucking reasons for it. Computers were made to make our lives easier, but all they have managed to do is to make many people more socially isolated and working on them more of a chore than the original fucking paper work. Prove of that? You're currently reading a piece of fucking text of a person who you don't know instead of talking to a friend in person. Probably in a darkened room cave so that the light doesn't interfere with the screen brightness.

EDIT: If you downvote my comment, at least have the balls to comment why.