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sounds like maaaaybe too little ram and no swap? what is your ram size and do you have any swap or zram enabled? i kinda doubt it because multiple distros should have a swap space or zram on by default on a fresh install but maybe not or you explicitly chose not to and it’s running out of memory.
cinnamon, lxde, kde, and mate are all desktop environments that mimic the basics of windows ui like the taskbar, start menu, and windows with minimize, maximize, and exit buttons at the top. and all can be installed/selected during install on pretty much every popular distro. there’s prolly some others i’ve forgotten but those are all solid choices.
edit: whoops had mint listed but that’s not a de that’s a distro