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Someone already explained why this is a bad idea.
Now if he’s interested in the microcontroller adjacent functions of the pi or the one built into a keyboard like the old amiga and trs home computers then set him up with a kvm switch or second monitor +barrier and a normal x86 computer running Linux.
I would strongly not recommend a raspberry pi
I see your edit, and would like to comment that you also haven't mentioned which rpi you were going to try this on. I recently wanted to set up a quick little pc using a rpi, just so I could browse the web and maybe watch some videos. Tried a rpi2 I had laying around. No way. Moved to a rpi3, and while it would load most pages, youtube was a bust as it completely maxed out the ram and swap. I then went to a rpi4 with 8gb and it has been doable, kind of. Sometimes it's pretty choppy with the video, but basic web browsing is ok. I did try my plex the other day through the browser and it was barely acceptable. Lots of stuttering and sometimes just hangs, but that's not the ideal way to view plex on anything. Haven't tried my rpi5 yet, but my point to all this is that I think you are on the right track setting it up on a spare pc he has. If you had given him a rpi as a 'desktop' replacement it might have just soured him on the whole idea.
Raspberry Pi 5 with 8 GB of RAM
Why do this on a raspberry pi and not just boot a live usb on his normal computer, or on a small partition?
I don't know I would have to ask him.
That seems fine. Honestly, if he's new to Linux and wants something stable, maybe consider an atomic distro. But Debian is pretty damn good.
I'd wait until he has requests. Ask for feedback about what he feels like he's missing and make updates as needed. Easier than trying to anticipate.
You can have a look at what's popular on flathub.org
Definitely do get Freetube as a YouTube client!
Notepad in wine is pointless compared to something like gedit, which you have, or similar editors like geany or kwrite. Cinnamon might even have their own basic text editor. And then there are further options like mousepad from the xfce project or featherpad from the lxqt project.
Notepad in wine will just lead to frustration because of poorer integration.
Finally, I just saw your edit and I think you’re spot on. Not because of ARM, which is actually decently supported, but because running an OS off of a microSD card is slow and tedious. It just isn’t made for that quick, small random access.