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Elementary OS is positioning itself a Linux distro that Just Works TM, but I haven’t used it anywhere near as much as Ubuntu/Gnome so I can’t definitively say.

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For what it's worth, Elementary OS is really a cool OS as long as you don't expect to be able to customize it. Its UI and ergonomics are really different from the Gnome/KDE/XFCE and is really consciously designed.

The trade of is that you have to love it or hate it because you can barely change anything, but it deserves to be loved. I'm back to Windows for an undetermined span of time but I'll gladly reinstall ElementaryOS as soon as I can probably pay for it.

How is it really different from GNOME? The interface looks like modified GNOME, the apps look similar to their GNOME counterparts, and they even refer GNOME in their HIG.

It's just simply not Gnome at all. It's not even a fork. Most of the base apps are developed by the ElementaryOS team (with their own framework on top of Gtk) and they are really impressive.

So, listing differences with Gnome would be like comparing Gnome & KDE.

I don’t think they put any emphasis on tablet or 2-in-1 support, so might not be a good choice for this person.

I think it’s an excellent choice for a standard desktop or laptop.

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