edit: Fedora it is then!
He will be running the AMD 9800 X3D w/ RX 9070 XT, B850 motherboard.
I am deciding between either Fedora (probably KDE) and Bazzite (also KDE), but I’m not sure whether an atomic distro would be better/worse for a newbie.
As far as I understand, atomic distros can be easily rolled back after an update, but you are unable to use apt/dnf/etx, you need to use Flatpak, I think. Would that be limiting for the average user? Also, does Bazzite have better driver support for newer AMD hardware compared to Fedora?
I would recommend Linux Mint. Its really simple to work with and basically plug and play. Comes with a solid software selection and built in tools. I personally really like the cinammon and mate editions. Cinnamon has a bit more modern look to it and MATE is a bit more retro.
I heard that Linux Mint doesn’t play nice with newer hardware? Or is that only an Nvidia thing
It has to do with LTS kernel (iirc) making it incompatible with certain new(er) hardware. I recommend Fedora KDE.
Mint is based on Ubuntu, which has a Hardware Enablement Stack offering newer kernels. I would expect that (or maybe something Mint-specific) to take care of it.
I still would never recommend a “stable release” or LTS distro because the vast majority of security vulnerabilities never receive a CVE, and as a result the a large amount of vulnerabilities go unpatched for months. Also I like distros that take security seriously (Fedora and openSUSE).
Usually they backport security fixes to the stable version.
I ran an older Nvidia card an currently a new amd card on Linux mint without problems. I suggest you try it out first using a live install on a USB stick.
It also doesn’t have HDR if that’s important to you. I switch into kubuntu whenever I want to watch something in HDR.
I believe you need to be on kernel 6.12+ for the 9070 XT. Mint 22.3 will support that.