The thing is, we have to be reasonable with our expectations. You or I may remember that Microsoft has always been shady and anti consumer, most people don't. They remember a time when you bought things and owned them, and it didn't feel like we were being nickel and dimed quite so hard. We are not going to start an anti Microsoft (or whatever corporation) movement and actually be able to rile the masses to support that cause, but we might at least be able to get them to demand things go back to the quality they were at 30 years ago

Boss makes a dollar, I make a dime, that's why I poop on company time. I come in early, boss comes in late, so I also use the stalls to masturbate

From a new users perspective, a lot of the main ones will probably feel very similar and the main difference you'd notice is stability and compatibility. Don't overwhelm yourself with choices, just choose a easy to use, high user base, well supported distro to start on (Fedora, Ubuntu, Mint) and if you don't like it move to something else later