I've used Debian on hosted servers and have used it on my own little server for several years. I've tried it on the desktop but it was too much trouble there. I've used Mint for several months, ran into trouble, went back to Ubuntu. I've tried Fedora as well - too much trouble.
Now I'm back to Ubuntu, and my home server runs it as well. I'm going to stick with Ubuntu - the LTS versions of course - and that's it. Maybe I'm going to have to use another distro in the future if my job requires it, and if I have colleagues who use Fedora or Debian or Kali who can help me, I'm willing to give that a try.
I'm running the desktop version on my server by the way. Sometimes it's just easier to attach a monitor and keyboard and have a GUI. This is maybe not-done in the linux world, security wise, but if this makes me solve problems faster, I think it makes the machine safer.
Hopefully no extreme fanboy tricks a normal user to install his favorite bleeding edge distro that needs under the hood knowledge , heavy maintenance and troubleshooting skills.
The story is different if you need Linux for your work or you LOVF thinkering.
Flip a coin, heads Fedora, tails Ubuntu. Stick with it.
At the top of the "family tree" of distributions, you've got "root" distributions such as Slackware and Debian. They branch out into specialised distributions such as Ubuntu Server for servers, Kali Linux for pentesting, and so on.
With this in mind, it's probably easiest to start with choosing a "root" distribution, and optionally choosing a derivative as necessary if a root distribution isn't specialised or convenient enough for your needs.
For example, if one wants stability and hardware compatibility, one can go straight with Debian. If they want a layer of user-friendliness and official support from many applications, then they could pick Ubuntu instead of plain Debian. (This is a subjective example!)
Considering there's hundreds of distributions, having some criteria such as high popularity and thorough documentation might be necessary to narrow down the list of choices.
DistroWatch is good enough for giving you an idea of each distribution's purpose without opening dozens of search tabs.
Of course, one could also choose the option to perpetually hop from distro to distro every other day, if feeling adventurous (or anxious to make a choice) :P
Distrowatch [1] is a good place to start. Read the short descriptions of the various distros, going down the ranking from top to bottom, and knowing that the further down the ranking you're venturing, the more "dangerous" the waters you're navigating.
Look at the "distribution category" dropdown in the advanced search [2] to see if there are distros specifically designed for your intended use case (e.g. NAS, Netbooks, Old Computers, Privacy, etc.)
Pick hardware that has a high installed base and is not too new.
People will often ask questions like "can I run X on Y" and get a clear answer. But there are some people who don't know how to ask that question.
The second best is one where you can find a good user community online.
There is a strong streak of contrarianism running through the linux community that I fall prey to occasionally, where the cool kids push some obscure distribution like it is superior, but I would ignore that. The innovation does come from those impulses sometimes but the hidden truth about linux is a lot of corporate developers work hard on the gnarly tech improvements while the broader community works on fluff like animated windows burning.
I like to get stuff done, and mainstream distros allow you to ignore the noise and get on with producing stuff.
oh i did. i'm using vmware workstation pro. i tried Kubuntu, pop_os and mint. i prefer Ubuntu.
i use Ubuntu for programing .Net. it work flawless with .Net 6 and Jetbrains rider. I have problem setting up SSL. it was easy to fix by goolging.
i'm loving programming .Net on linux. i still find something that i can easily do on Windows but not linux for example, mouse scroll speed. this is the answer that i found https://askubuntu.com/questions/255890/how-can-i-adjust-the-...
it seem like a lot just to adjust mouse scrolling
These are all Ubuntu derivatives. I agree on the sentiment that there's a lot of push for obscure distributions, but it's worth trying the major ones. I recommend Fedora, it's another first-class distro for workstation and people that have work to do, and has nothing to do with Ubuntu or Debian at all.
Why I prefer Fedora to Ubuntu/Debian, in my personal opinion:
* Ubuntu GNOME is a frankenstein of patched GNOME software (some from GNOME 40, some from GNOME 3.38), Fedora is stock vanilla upstream GNOME.
* Maintainers of Debian and Ubuntu derivatives tend to be liberal with patching upstream software, often introducing bugs not present upstream. Fedora adopts an upstream-first approach (patch only if absolutely necessary)
* I'm not a fan of apt, rpm is slightly better
* Ubuntu snap is a dead man walking, often disabled on its own derivative distros (mint, pop_os, etc.), while Fedora/Redhat uses Flatpak which has first-party support pretty much everywhere and it's not under control of a single corporation like snap is.
* Red Hat actually pays people to work on major Linux user-space libraries (wayland, GNOME, pipewire, kernel development), while Ubuntu often goes its own way to create its own solutions that aren't adopted by anyone else.
* Fedora is probably the most stable bleeding-edge distribution, where the future of Linux is being promoted and tested slightly before than anyone else. We've got default Wayland, btrfs, a functional app store, pipewire, soon GNOME apps distributed as Flatpak.
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That said, Arch Linux is another worth exploring to learn how all Linux user-space fits together, has the best package manager and documentation in all the Linux world, but IMHO it's more for tinkering than having a rock solid workstation (I've used Arch for a decade before moving to Fedora)
Been thinking I should just move to debian stable, but in the meantime I update things a lot less frequently than I did before
And this is "just" talking about Mint & Ubuntu... How does a normal person decide what distro to even start with (I am stuck with Kali since forever. Does what I need for my job).