*** THESE ARE ALL BASED ON MY OPINIONS ... **
Which Distribution do you recommend?
I would NOT USE any “fake Linux” (say installing Linux INSIDE of Windows, which takes away the point of Linux in the first place). I want to be clear a new users does not need to try all of these but if you try one of these and do not like it or something goes wrong ... there are other options
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Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu with a few additions such as codecs used for Mp3s and Video files easily installable “out of the box”.... Granted that Mint and any Ubuntu based distrobution I have seen have both come to a sort of common ground with a "Install codecs" option being present, during the install; though, even if you miss that, there will be a menu entry on your installed system to do the same thing ... no big deal
Linux Lite

Ubuntu-based Distro Comment
These are pretty easy to understand as basically its just the first part of the DE in question + "buntu"
Examples
- Kubuntu = the KDE DE + “buntu”
- Lubuntu = LDXE DE + “buntu”
- Xubuntu = XFCE DE + “buntu”