When Windows 10 support ends I was planning on transitioning to Linux on my desktop. I just tried CachyOS KDE Plasma and immediately ran into two serious issues:
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I could not figure out how to get audio to come out of my headphones. Everything is connected, and sound totally works on Windows 10 with my Audioengine D3 USB DAC, but not in CachyOS. I messed with all the system audio settings, profiles, and mute control, and nothing worked. No audio at all, not from test sound, not from browser.
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Apparently Wayland is the name of the default/best video compositor for Linux, but it doesn't seem to support ycbcr subsampling modes. In Windows 10, I use the Nvidia-provided 4:2:0 subsampling mode with my RTX 2060 Super to get 4K120 support over HDMI to my LG C1 (genuinely hard to see the difference unless you're running a test pattern). It seems you have to use the X11 compositor in Linux to get that feature, but I've read that X11 provides a poor experience compared to Wayland.
Not to mention, my first CachyOS install attempt bugged midway through (installing from DVD disc) and I spent a lot of time unsuccessfully trying to restart the install process not realizing something was borked in that session that was preventing partitions from being formatted for the installer. So I rebooted and manually set to load the installer into RAM, and finally was able to get it to install.
Seeing my experience hasn't improved since the last time I tried Linux (Mint, a few years ago - really bad audio stuttering), now the plan has switched to sticking to W10 until software inevitably stops supporting it (Nvidia is already ending W10 game ready support this year), and then switching to W11. I'll just have to use mods to improve the usability, specifically for start menu and right click menu.
I would like to use Linux but it really disappointed me seeing all the hype on LTT's channel, only to see that it's still user experience hell. It's either "works but evil" (Windows) or "doesn't work but not evil" (Linux) and that's unfortunate.
There are soo many options for Linux that it can be hard to make a decision.
My recommendation for people moving from windoze who haven’t used anything else is always Ubuntu. I run an Ubuntu machine, and have a couple of other distros for different purposes.
The advantage of Ubuntu is that it is generally plug and play, and that it is a very easy transition from the dark side.
Once you get comfortable, then move to different distros. Currently, I have Ubuntu, Mint,Pop, and Hannah Montana running.
There are far better options than Ubuntu at this point.
I would go with something else personally
Ubuntu is the reason why I hated Linux first. It is crappy bloatware, that is hard to use. You have to open terminal to install deb files, and you have no idea you had to install nvidia driver. Snap packages are attrocity someone caught dead using.
KDE Plasma desktop was the best, then it helped me get into tiling. (Mint is also really cool)
You can actually open DEB files in the Software Center and install them.
Go with Debian, same as ubuntu but not bloated and snap focussed
Also default ubuntu is GNOME, which is closer to apple, if you come from Windows its way easier with plasma
Ubuntu Gnome is awful in so many ways
Also gnome is not Apple like at all
Second that. There's LMDE as well, which is Debian with a few perks for beginners. Just Ubuntu isn't all that great. It used to be some sort of default recommendation for newbies. But that's a long time ago. And with Ubuntu you just picked a vendor who regularly does weird business decisions. And they (Canonical) also massively suffer from the "not invented here" syndrome. Oftentimes they'll deliver some sub-par experience to their users because they developed it, instead of going with the accepted standard solutions everybody else uses. Which also don't get abandoned after a few years. I mean Ubuntu isn't unusable... It does work. But I'll usually recommend some gaming distro to gamers, LMDE or Debian to someone who just wants to use their computer as a tool, or sometimes the shiny newer distributions like CashyOS which are popular as of today for good reasons. I wouldn't recommend Ubuntu, though unless that's some kind of work-related requirement or you've been using it for a long time already.