My own choice of desktop is KDE but those wanting something lighter may like to look and lxde or xfce desktops.

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As for ease of setting up, I find OpenSuse easier than say Ubuntu. Some of that is because I am more familiar with it but I also find Yast handy for some configuration tasks.

I know it seems to go against the grain but I also prefer OpenSuse's implementation (Yast software management/Zypper) of an RPM packaging system to the ones I've tried on Deb based systems. I'm not so fond of Fedora's RPM system though.

Each to their own of course and with Linux, one is quite free to try several distributions and desktops to find one that suits them best.

I guess it can seem a lot for someone new to Linux but my own feeling does tend towards encouraging them to try a few live distributions before settling on one to install.