flatbield

More usable. Better installer, better desktop configs, better eye candy, better upgrade tools, wider 3rd party support.

Upgrades. To do a major upgrade on Debian you go into the command line. You first adjust the appropriate files in /etc/apt. Then you run a bunch of apt commands.

Ubuntu you are asked if you want to upgrade to a new release and just say yes.

Because Canonical put a lot of effort into usability. Pretty much all of the popular recommended beginner distributions are Ubuntu based. Examples: Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Zorin, Elementary.

People will recommend other stuff, often that are loved by varioius enthusiasts but these may or may not be that suitable for beginners. Call me skeptical.

I use and recommend Ubuntu because it is easy to install, use, and just works. It is also widely supported and very popular. The one thing I do not like about it is the Snap focus. I would love to recommend Linux Mint but last time I used it major distribution upgrades from the GUI were not supported. Have no idea if they fixed that. Ubuntu upgrades are the click of a button. In my family there are nontechnical users and they have used it for almost 20 years just fine without much help from me.

On the other hand I use Debian if I intend to custom configure something and want a minimal install to start from. Major upgrades on Debian are not a click of a button. On the other hand Debian is not Snap based. My workstation and VPS are Debian for example.

Something listed in the top 10 or so on https://distrowatch.com/. Personally I like one of the Debian based distros.

Currently we use Ubuntu and Debian. Ubuntu would be the better of the two for beginners.

The distrowatch beginners list is: https://distrowatch.com/search-mobile.php?category=Beginners#simple

Seems like one loves vim or one does not. I learned vi back in the mid 80s, hated it then, probablty not going back. These days I thankfully use Geany or nano. Learning vim seems like a right of passage or something.

Ribbon bar shit, personally I hate the MS ribbon bar. So for me the LO interface is way better. Just depends on what you like and what you learned and know well.