When I first began researching Linux, for my needs, I found the number of different Distros to be overwhelming. So I made this flow chart, with the intent to help new users find a starting point for choosing a distribution.
I'm open to critique, as to making this chart as helpful as possible.
EDIT: Chart updated based on suggestions in the comments.
Out of curiosity, is the live USB / install experience that different than kubuntu? I've never tried mint.
I've used both, and been very pleased with both.
Mint stood out, last time I installed it, because every decision was easy and factual and about me (what time zone, what keyboard).
I essentially just pressed "next" a bunch of times.
Kubuntu was nearly that good last time I tried it, as well.
Between the two, I generally recommend Mint primarily because it keeps the messaging simple and consistent with the community.
Secondarily, because Mint doesn't have Snap (and I consider Snap bad, in a way that new Linux users are unlikely to appreciate until much later.)
Ah, gotcha.
I'm not technical enough to understand the functional difference between flatpak and snap, but I know that snaps are centrally controlled by Canonical and thus I assume not as enshittification resistant as flatpak.
But from the end user perspective, they can be a lot simpler to use than PPAs for random software. For me they're kind of a guilty pleasure.