By your definition, Linux just worked literally the first time I tried it (Linux Mint in 2015) and each subsequent install as well. The distros I have the most

By your definition, Linux just worked literally the first time I tried it (Linux Mint in 2015) and each subsequent install as well. The distros I have the most experience using are Linux Mint, LMDE, Qubes, and NixOS. They've all cooperated flawlessly with my hardware. I'd recommend Mint for literally anybody, especially since you can try it on a live USB and verify your hardware before installing. (There is one exception: my client wanted me to use this out-of-date screen casting device which only had support for Windows and Mac. I tried to get it to work for all of ten minutes, and did not succeed.)