If I have anyone interested in trying linux I show them my Debian (no innuendo intended!), and then boot them onto Mint or Ubuntu via my USB drive so that they can play about with it at their leisure.

I’m of the opinion that one should recommend distros that you’re familiar with, and ideally use yourself. Because they will have questions and particularly, if you actively use it yourself, you’ll also be able to test whether stuff normally works, which is broken on their machine.

I just pulled out a spare laptop to try some new distros to help advise someone about their options. I installed a few and gauged how easy/simple it would be for each one in regards to their needs.

It wasn’t distro hopping in that I wasn’t really using them beyond testing, but it was checking out options, settings, and tools. In the end, they’ll have to decide on what works best for them.

Spun up a VM, yup, hopped, no.