I’ve used it in the past and its awesome. It works very well even on ancient hardware and is a fully functioning OS even if you never install it and just run it in live mode. Its basically a computer you can keep on your keychain and run on anything.

I started with Ubuntu and then Mint, I don’t think the system files being modifiable is a huge issue, I don’t think many noobs are really doing much to mess with them. If you’re just looking for something that does your basic everyday things then its just installing the OS and then putting your apps on there.