Default recommendation for new ex-Windows users is to use Linux Mint, it’s very simple and includes most things you need. Mint also has great documentation and community resources (forums, etc.), especially for beginners. It’s also based upon the most popular distro, which is Ubuntu. So there’s a high degree of Ubuntu compatibility, which is a plus.

After the distribution choice, there’s the desktop environment choice. Here, I’d recommend either the default one from Mint, which is called Cinnamon (use this if you don’t have a preference), or KDE Plasma as an alternative. Both are very similar to Windows, but more powerful in terms of customization and features. (Well, of course anything on Linux is very customizable already due to the open source nature, but these 2 already offer a lot of GUI customization options without any tinkering). It’s not recommended for a beginner to switch desktop environments, you can do that later on when you’re more comfortable with Linux. If you’re curious about the other desktop choices, try them out in a VM or separate system. At the beginning, always use the preinstalled desktop environment.

Only slight downside of Mint is that it still ships with X11 by default, which is the older graphical subsystem as the foundation of each desktop environment. Wayland is the new one [actually it’s just a set of protocols which the compositor implements, but that doesn’t matter here]. Many distros already use Wayland, but it’s still experimental on Mint. For many users, this will not make a difference in practice, which is good, but Wayland is more advanced and has more advanced features which will never land in X11, and also higher security. If you have any non-standard needs regarding things like HDR, adaptive VRR, different per-monitor refresh rates, no tearing, per-monitor scaling, good touch support, and other “advanced” things like that, chances are you’re better off with Wayland. Most users probably don’t need to care that much though.

Anyway, should you need a Wayland-based distro alternative, or generally a second distribution recommendation, I’d say Fedora. It’s also rather easy distro, maybe not as easy as Mint is, but also very user friendly and more ahead of the curve in comparison to Mint (newer kernel, newer packages, more frequent updates).

Most users will be fine using Mint as their first distro, though. Mint will also soon be updated to Wayland as well, it’s just a matter of time. Be sure to keep your system updated.

Gaming is actually easy on Linux but since most games are specifically written for Windows and the Windows stack (DirectX, etc.) and also primarily tested on Windows and many game devs don’t test on Linux, there are sometimes things that might not work out of the box or you might need to try different options or compatibility tool versions (e.g. experimental version of Proton, or GE-Proton, or things like that). But Valve and lots of other individuals are constantly improving the situation and fixing compatibility issues should any come up. Compatibility is generally super high these days (like around 90%) so most users will not have any problems, especially not if they are playing any kind of recent or popular games where there’s a lot of focus to get them to run well, but some specific things or titles still might not work. For example some unethical game studios (most notably Epic Games, Bungie, EA, Riot) utilize integrated anti-cheat tools in their games (most notably Fortnite, Valorant, LoL, Destiny 2, Battlefield) which deliberately block all Linux users, even though the games would technically run on Linux as well. You can and should check protondb.com for general Linux compatibility reports of a Steam game, and areweanticheatyet.com for Linux compatibility of games which include anti-cheat components. If you’re not sure, check both sites. An anti-cheat component often only exists for the multiplayer part of a game, not for the single-player part. Most single-player games do not have or need any anti-cheat components.