qsl The elephant in the room is most will probably be coming from the windows world, and will be familiar with that organization and nomenclature.
All of the new Linux users I've worked with over the last 15 years have come from Windows. I did. I started using Linux in 2006 as an accommodation to a friend whose son set him up with Ubuntu after he retired. My friend was hopelessly lost, and although I used Windows and had no particular interest in Linux, I knew Unix cold, and installed Ubuntu on a spare computer so that I could learn enough about Linux and Ubuntu to help him out. Over the years, I got interested in Linux in and of itself, and I've helped others make the transition.
I've run Windows and Linux (Ubuntu 2006-2016, Solus Budgie since 2017) in parallel since then. My usual method of helping people transition is to keep people in Windows for several months, but get them used to cross-platform applications like LibreOffice, and then, as the last step, help them move to one of the "beginners" distros. Mint, Zorin and Solus Budgie are relatively easy moves for Windows users, and Ubuntu Budgie fits in that category as well, although I've never seen it on a "beginners" list. Ubuntu, Elementary and others with divergent desktops are tougher for new users, and increase the learning curve, in my opinion.
I've said any number of times on this forum that Solus Budgie is "a near perfect desktop environment for me", and I mean it. One half of the equation is Solus -- no cruft, no nonsense, carefully curated, well-supported and focused on desktop use -- and the other half of the equation is Budgie -- simple, elegant, intuitive, organized in such a way that I can run in parallel with Windows, moving back and forth during the course of the day without skipping a beat.
What all the Linux adopters I've helped have in common is that they all fit the profile of home desktop users, needing only basic applications (mail and calendar, browser, reasonably robust office suite, text editor, calculator, file manager, solitaire suite, basic photo/video editor, media player, and weather, plus maybe one or two others like Steam and Zoom). Solus is focused on meeting the needs of those users, and does a good job of it, in my opinion.
So that's the context of my comment that "I don't know that a focus on 'newbies' adds much to the equation." Nothing more. I don't think we are in disagreement.
