Linux mint is in my opinion the best distro for a new user, but you may personally not be fond of the UI.

I don’t know how to write a guide for you, but if you have more specific questions feel free to ask them, best of luck!

Should I try it instead of Piped? If so, why?

No ads, no tracking, just donations. The model proved itself when twitter went to shit and a big influx of users came to mastodon, it all worked out.

The fact that it is open source means it’s worth playing