edit: Fedora it is then!
He will be running the AMD 9800 X3D w/ RX 9070 XT, B850 motherboard.
I am deciding between either Fedora (probably KDE) and Bazzite (also KDE), but I’m not sure whether an atomic distro would be better/worse for a newbie.
As far as I understand, atomic distros can be easily rolled back after an update, but you are unable to use apt/dnf/etx, you need to use Flatpak, I think. Would that be limiting for the average user? Also, does Bazzite have better driver support for newer AMD hardware compared to Fedora?
For new users, I’ve been recommending Zorin with good success.
would an ubuntu base support something as new as a 9800 well?
I’m sure it’d be fine.
I can’t say for certain as I don’t have one to test. That being said, I’ve worked with hundreds of AMD/Linux machines (both deb and rpm distros) over the years and haven’t experienced compatibility issues.