Is Mint still the best user-friendly desktop?

[Rockbox]

Or has it been usurped? I use Mint with b00merang's Win 10 theme to make everything familiar. But I don't feel close to replacing Windows, even with most of my work in a web browser. I'm interested in something that updates a little more often. Also, I don't want any spyware like Canonical puts in Ubuntu (one of the reasons I tried leaving Windows in the first place). Bonus question: which distro has the most welcoming community?

 

[Rockbox]

Are you referring to the Amazon thing when you say spyware?

Yeah.

So the alternatives are really just Fedora, Arch and a flavour of Ubuntu?

 

[Rockbox]

If you like a Windows-esque feel, might be worth a look at Zorin OS.

Zorin OS - Make your computer better.

Discover the alternative to Windows and macOS designed to make your computer faster, more powerful, secure, and privacy-respecting.

zorin.com

I must say Zorin really knows its audience. I pressed win-L instinctively to lock the PC and it worked, while in Mint I had to change some shortcuts. Didn't need separate apps for a timered dark mode or nightshift either. I think it's a much better starter distro for weening off Windows, but I still have to go through the others in this thread.

Research tells me it's a highly customised version of gnome that's hard to replicate. and that if I could replicate it on any distro, Fedora would be a good pick for being more up to date than Debian.