My friend has an ailing Chromebook and I’m getting them a decent real laptop that I’m going to put Linux on. They essentially do everything in a browser already so software compatibility isn’t an issue. I’m looking for distros with high stability, KDE, unobtrusive updates that happen without user input, and a snapshot system so we can roll back if anything gets fucked up.
Also, recs for office software to get them off Google Docs (needs to be compatible with MSOffice formats)
I think Debian is the answer here.
Mainly, because you can set up transparent automatic updates, and be confident that they’re not going to break things. Also comes with KDE (with sane defaults). Then use timeshift for snapshots, just have to make sure you use btrfs during install. It’s not going to be fancy, but it’s going to work.
LibreOffice is the usual choice for MSOffice formats. It’s also worth looking at Onlyoffice and WPS Office, some people like these a little better, especially people coming from MSOffice.