It's mostly up to you and your requirements. Most laptops should be fine, that doesn't really matter that much whenever do you use windows or Linux. I think thinkpads are way too over hyped. I would just grab something with good build quality, and specs you need. If you want something really fancy like fingerprint, smartcard reader make sure it's compatible with Linux, that's all.

I wouldn't recommend fedora as it uses RPM and SElinux which can be tricky, especially for beginners.

I am mid-advanced Linux user, I would went with Linux Mint, no matter is it for me or for somebody totally new.