If you want an out of the box distro that just works and has that old-school flavour, maybe look into Mint.
If you want something a bit more modern, then pop_os! is something of a Linux darling
Ubuntu probably has the widest community support. Although it does seem to have some issues
I’m not clear on what your bugs are, but if it’s like, you run a command in the terminal and a bunch of scary sounding messages come up, that’s normal. That’s just how it likes to be
If it’s been a while since you’ve seen used it, then I’d say Linux is probably worth another shot. It’s come a long way, and it only gets better with age
Sick burn from the judge