Simply, Linux gives us choice. Way more choice than we need mind you, but it's there. I've installed it for newbies and I pick what I think is best for them. Knowing their limitations. If I don't know them well I just give them Zorin. Making sure they know it's not Windows but looks and feels similar. I may ask a couple of questions as to what they're using it for. But yes, make the choice for them, they don't want to decide.

A TRS80 Coco 3 with 64 Kb of ram with a 5" floppy drive. Coco was short for colour computer. I had a lot of fun on that one. I used "basic" on it.