Ubuntu ain't what it used to be. If you want a simple distro nowadays just go straight to the source with Debian. There's no real benefit to going with Ubuntu anymore, and community distros are just a safer bet. Corporate distros aren't your friend.
This sort of stuff always makes me wonder....WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU ALL USING YOUR OS FOR?. All I want my OS to do is hold my files, execute my programs and stay the hell out of my way. What could people possibly be doing with their OS that makes version and distro wars worth more than two seconds of your life? Its like arguing about which calculator or plain text editor is best. I dont care. It adds the numbers, it changes the letters, as long as it isnt doing anything else: who cares.
Eh, I've been around the block at this point. Fedora ftw. Simple, easy, GUI installer, "just works"™️, sane package manager, normie default DEs, stable, corporate backing. Maybe not for a purist or enthusiast, but I don't have time for that stuff anymore anyways. My days of pouring hours into getting my Arch install just right are long past me. That was for when I still had free time.
This is honestly a timeline for me instead. Started out with Ubuntu, Debian, Elementary, Peppermint; then did Kali for a while for work, then moved on to Antergos, Arch. I eventually got tired of my system breaking every few weeks, and now settled with Mint for the time being because I don't have the time to maintain a bleeding-edge distro and I just need something that works when I turn it on.
Arch is good for a machine that gets used a lot, but for something where you need stability or to be able to run it for a long time between restarts and updates, something Debian-based is preferable. Just not modern Ubuntu because Snaps are performance-sapping nightmares.
My first foray into Linux was Pop OS since I read it was a good beginner distro... eventually I got frustrated with the amount of programs I tried to install that were way out of date if installed through Ubuntu.. having to add repositories was annoying and they weren't even the latest versions. I then switched to EndeavourOS and I've been happy! I know arch isn't considered a "beginner" distro, but I've found it quite stable.
I started out with Elementary, then went the typical "I use Arch BTW" route (and for a time, Gentoo), and right now I'm happy and content with Fedora's simplicity
It seems like a lot of linux users are fond of jumping around different distros, do they all automate the setup process with a bash file that installs and configures everything quickly? 🙃