I don’t think dubious scrappers taking obviously stolen copper are paying fair market value. You’d have to throw in a vcr or two amd haggle a bit to get enough for a dub.
I’ve been on slackware almost exclusively for 2 decades-ish. I’m team kde. I always liked it, but I had shitty hardware from like 2010 - 2020, so I was on xfce because it’s a lot lighter. But I always had kde installed so I could use some of their native apps.
3rd, but I recommend getting the kde variety (used to be called kubuntu). This will give you the most windows like experience. Regular Ubuntu ships with gnome and has a different feel to it.
Probably linux mint. Everything tends to work out of the box and function the way you’d expect. If you’re used to windows then cinnamon will have a familiar feel to it. I like xfce myself, but I move things around to make it feel like windows 95.