Manjaro does a pretty good job. But I agree with both sides here. Rolling release will certainly cause issues for you at some point, but I don't think it's as big a deal as it's made out to be. Manjaro does a good job keeping things stable and I think anyone taking their first steps into Linux should expect their first os to be more of a sacrificial learning os than something they can count on (until they get a feel for troubleshooting).
The idea of recommending a "friendly" distro to get started is precisely avoid the "sacrificial learning" part in the beginning, and let the person expand its horizon with time. You cannot expect a newcomer form another OS to stay if you put it to deal with too much stuff from the beginning. Also, a great deal of people just want to "do stuff", not focus on maintaining the system. I am not saying the Manjaro or other rolling-release distros are bad options; I just would not recommend for a beginner unless it has some technical background (which we should never assume is the case), based in the fact the rolling-release concept is something that is not a thing for a common user in other OSS and you have to understand it from minute 1. In those terms, I do believe recommending distros that have similar approaches (and even appearance) to Windows/Mac is often a better advice. Curiosity will come with time and they can eventually move to more "customizable" distros if they want to.
As an aside note, if we are talking about the first distribution for a technical savvy person who wants to really learn, maybe vanilla Arch will be a way better recommendation. But this kind of "beginners" are a minority and the idea is give advice that applies for the majority.
For further actions, you may consider blocking this person and/or reporting abuse
We're a place where coders share, stay up-to-date and grow their careers.
Manjaro does a pretty good job. But I agree with both sides here. Rolling release will certainly cause issues for you at some point, but I don't think it's as big a deal as it's made out to be. Manjaro does a good job keeping things stable and I think anyone taking their first steps into Linux should expect their first os to be more of a sacrificial learning os than something they can count on (until they get a feel for troubleshooting).
The idea of recommending a "friendly" distro to get started is precisely avoid the "sacrificial learning" part in the beginning, and let the person expand its horizon with time. You cannot expect a newcomer form another OS to stay if you put it to deal with too much stuff from the beginning. Also, a great deal of people just want to "do stuff", not focus on maintaining the system. I am not saying the Manjaro or other rolling-release distros are bad options; I just would not recommend for a beginner unless it has some technical background (which we should never assume is the case), based in the fact the rolling-release concept is something that is not a thing for a common user in other OSS and you have to understand it from minute 1. In those terms, I do believe recommending distros that have similar approaches (and even appearance) to Windows/Mac is often a better advice. Curiosity will come with time and they can eventually move to more "customizable" distros if they want to.
As an aside note, if we are talking about the first distribution for a technical savvy person who wants to really learn, maybe vanilla Arch will be a way better recommendation. But this kind of "beginners" are a minority and the idea is give advice that applies for the majority.