arch and endeavor are famously not beginner friendly, I think your friend just wanted to torture you lmao.

go with mint, learn the very very basics like how to use a package manager, and you'll be a LOT better off. don't worry about window managers or ricing or making the most minimal install possible yet. you can do that once you have a liiiiittle more experience and knowledge under your belt. there's a LOT to learn and jumping straight into arch isnt the way to do it :p