Windows 12 could be another costly upgrade for supporters of Microsoft operating systems. A new report reveals that the AI-dominated OS will require AMD and Intel CPUs with a dedicated NPU. Possibly surfacing in late 2026, the follow-up to Windows 11 may also rely on subscriptions.
For a new user, the most important things are usually a familiar feeling desktop environment, comprehensive default hardware support, and plenty of documentation in case you need it. The most important anti-things are needing to learn a bunch of new concepts right away, needing to use the command line, and experimental things that are known to break regularly.
Since you’re a Mac user, I would suggest KDE over Gnome for a desktop environment. Even though the default Gnome application bar looks very Mac-like and the default bar on KDE looks very windows-like, the rest of the KDE desktop feels much more Mac-like.
For the rest, you will want to use a common distro with a wide user base and a long history targeted at desktop users.
For those reasons, I would suggest either Kubuntu, or Fedora KDE.
Edit: When picking between those two, choose Kubuntu is you want to install the OS, and then not worry about major updates for several years. Pick Fedora if you want to have new features more often.
If you are ok with a more Windows-like desktop environment, Linux Mint is the go to option for an easy intro to Linux.