When you’re trying out distros, I usually say to just go for it. Install the one that grabs your attention. Save everything to a NAS or cloud because the distro is going to break and you’re going to want to try another one. However, Ubuntu is actually the wrong one to start with for this trajectory because it’s the least likely to break.

This is not a problem. Science includes peer review for sanity checks. Her paper might be a case study; it’s not necessarily a null hypothesis rejection.