Which version is best to use for a first time Linux User?

More users, more supports and more software packages:
I personally prefer Ubuntu for laptop which has a GUI built on purpose.
Second is Oracle Linux (Redhat Linux fork) which provides a very long term official support.

 

I prefer Ubuntu and Debian. Although basically all Linux are the same stuff.
Together with the previous recommendations about search engines, I would recommend having a support to save the own code, notes, interesting links, and so on.

There are portable Snipetts softwares very useful with search facilities. I use CherryTree:
https://www.giuspen.net/cherrytree/

after the years I have accumulated a very long tree with notes and code for many different things. I cannot live without it.