I'm testing several of them for a few of my machines.
(Been in IT about the same length of time. I'm tired of Windows doing things behind my back.)
My primary Server OS is RHEL/CentOS but my workstation of choice is Fedora 29. Having said that, I also like Debian based distros.
just go with linux mint- cinnamon- easiest- big support- lots of folks try all kinds of flavors of linux- but in the end, they are all pretty similar- some are easier than others- mint is top of thel ine- ubuntu too- but i prefer mint- unless you want ‘secure’ linux- then there are choices that use thigns like TOR, encryption, secure email etc- or unless you wanna run linux off a floppy disk lol- (or CD)but really mint is an excellent linux-