Depends. Whatever choice you pick - go with Plasma (KDE) desktop. Most of below choices have alternative desktop flavors that offer Plasma instead of Gnome.

If your goal is to play games - something like Bazzite might work.

If your goal is to have a desktop experience with some gaming, something like NobaraOS or PopOS would work.

If your goal is only desktop experience - ubuntu will work.

If your goal is to learn and have super awesome Linux desktop - Arch Linux.

Personally I am in Arch Linux for the past decade. Tried many different ones and Arch Linux is the only one that simply "just works" for me. Not suitable for beginners.

please please please avoid an LTS (long term support) distro for desktop use, especially if gaming. this includes Linux mint which is based on Ubuntu LTS. the packages are painfully old and cause problems playing the latest games, particularly where they don't work out of the box with lutris/proton/wine etc. LTS is great for servers and workstations but not end users

experienced users can make any distro work including LTS but it's extra overhead for new folks

I use Fedora Silverblue personally (feels rock-solid and borderline impossible to mess up), but you might want to get more familiar with the basics before getting into immutable distros. I'd echo what everyone else is saying and do Linux Mint first

Relax, Microsoft will eventually fix Windows 11, release a decent Windows 12 or extend the support for Windows 10 for so long you won't be needing Linux anytime soon. :P

My recommendation goes for Debian and install all your software using Flatpak. This way you can get a rock solid OS and all the latest software. Ubuntu might be interesting as it is mostly beginner friendly and has a more cohesive all-in-one solution ou of the box.

Do it now

Anyone got love for Budgie?

Kde plasma if you game

Mint 💯

Zorin?

It's probably been said, but Ubuntu or one of its variants is really the easiest way to go. Canonical has devoted a great deal of effort to making things easy and intuitive, and a complete novice should be able to get a fully functional system set up within 15 minutes.

Fedora Silverblue if your wanting security and a "it just works" experience.

Linux Mint Debian Edition if you want stability and a traditional/familiar environment.

Vanilla OS Orchid should be a nice in-between once it releases.

Who**

Ubuntu, mint, pop os, and Manjaro are all good options IMO for new new people

You know, as much as people here say they aren't happy with it, I haven't seen any specific complaints that detail the problems. What bad change does windows 11 even make from windows 10?

Not saying I don't see problems with windows, there are... A lot. But what are the new problems with windows 11?

Edit: to the people downvoting as if you disagree with me: I'm literally asking a question because I don't know much about windows 11. I am not trying to make any kind of statement for or against windows 11, I just don't know what the current flavor of bullshit is and wanted to.

Ubuntu

version 6.6.10 is not bad, working great for me

Zero experience = ignore standard Distributions

Fedora Kinoite from ublue.it

So much stability and reliability, while modern packages. Just using Debian or Mint (Ubuntu LTS with an outdated Desktop and opinionated theming) is not a solution for a good experience, as you need updates.

Btw I broke every other Distro before, so I ended up on Fedora Kinoite