Welcome to form linux.
I am new to the site.
I come from Poland.
I have a first question , "What is the best distribution to start learning in linux?

it is almost irrelevant. Everybody has a favorite, and will recommend something, but if you want to learn the basics the OS itself is not important. Just install an ubuntu, mint, .... <you preferred one> and start to use it.
It also may depend on your existing knowledge, if you - for example - can build software, and also may depend on your other skills too.
If in doubt you can use VirtualBox on windows and try different distros...

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Welcome.

The answer is that it would be the one that is comfortable enough for you to use it the most, assuming you mean desktop GNU/Linux. Linux Mint is a good choice there. But if you have other goals in mind besides the desktop, there might be some fine tuning needed for that answer.

Or if you'd really like to jump in with both feet and deal with the inner workings, you might take a look at building a system using Linux from Scratch

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I wouldn't recommend that. You only learn from LFS if you already know enough about compiling and command line utilities to understand what you are doing. Of course you can always build an LFS system by blindly doing what the Good Book says, but I don't think you actually learn very much from doing that.

I would recommend a mainstream Linux for this project rather than a novice-centred one like Ubuntu or Mint. Once it would have been Debian, but Devuan would probably be better nowadays, as it still starts in traditional Unix fashion with sysvinit and startup scripts.

Start by learning the Filesystem Hierarchy: where everything lives. Linux is beautifully logical in that way. Each of the toplevel directories has specific things in it, like the rooms of a house. You wouldn't look for a carrot grater in the bedroom, would you! And the file ownership and permissions system means that you can explore as much as you want to without the risk of doing any harm.

Then examine your startup scripts. They will teach you basic scripting. Even if you don't write your own scripts, it's useful to know what a script looks like and how it works. Keep one terminal open for reading the man page for every new command you discover.

You can use your graphical interface at the same time for browsing, email, word processing, media play and all the other things you would do in Windows. Linux is not all that different in the way it uses a mouse and a keyboard. But the terminal is where you learn how it all works inside.

And learn to use Google or DuckDuckGo (preferably the latter because it respects your privacy more). Every aspect of Linux is well documented. If you want to know how something actually works, as distinct from how to use it, that's easy in Linux.

Hace fun!

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Last I heard the Linux Foundation had free courses, I would check there. For distro, just about any distro would do as someone else said.

Maybe this distro search will help:

https://distrowatch.com/search.php#advanced

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If you want to learn to use linux a user friendly distro like mint would probably be best.
However if you want to learn how linux works you cant go far wrong with slackware, but be aware you will need some general computer knowledge for slackware, but you will learn WAY more than a debian based distro ( apt-get install packageXX wont teach you very much! ).

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Just to illustrate how the term "user friendly" varies, depending on your needs and expectations. I quit Debian because it wasn't user friendly enough for me and found sanctuary in Gentoo. IMHO Gentoo is the most user friendly Linux, ever.

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Almost any general purpose stable distribution would be optimal for the first several months. Learning is not enhanced if things keep changing under you. For me it was Red Hat. These days I would recommend Debian Stable or Devuan perhaps.

Something like Ubuntu has some advantages, but like RHEL it has tools specific to that distribution. Learning those will mislead you about the more general GNU toolset. For that reason if you choose Mint Linux I recommend the MintDE version.

After six months or a year you might want to explore a different flavor to learn different things.
If you go the developer route, Slackware or LFS (and BLFS) are options.
IF you have other objectives in mind then other choices might be better.

Check Distrowatch on occasion to track things you find interesting for future use.

Finally, I recommend using Ventoy to prep a USB key with some distribution ISO files you find interesting. It gives you a menu driven boot option for selecting and booting from a list of ISO images of your choice and is FAR easier than creating a boot USB thumbdrive manually.
With such a device you can boot into live images for testing (or installation) at will.

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Use VirtualBox® on your [Windows?] host machine to allow you to install and experiment with Linux without changing anything about your host system at all. (It's full-featured, runs on every host, and it's free!)

Then, literally, just start experimenting with it. Fool around with it. "Do stuff." Try to do "the things you do with your computer every day," just using the Linux virtual machine to do it. Kick the tires. Take it for a drive. Go somewhere. Anywhere. (Since Linux is running in a window, you can afford to take crazy chances.)

And then ... "constantly ask questions, right here." The only "dumb question" is the one that you don't ask.

All of us, at one time or another, had exactly the same experience. An early writer of a column for a computer magazine titled it, "Taking A Sip From The Fire Hose." And everyone in his audience knew and appreciated exactly what he meant. Simply expect that to happen – and to happen more than once. Especially at first, you're going to be fairly confronted with something that you do not understand, and have to figure it out. Which you will learn how to do.

"Welcome aboard!"

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Why assume the OP is already running Windows? They did not say that was the case!

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One problem that newbies have is that there is an overwhelming number of possible configurations in a Linux system. So start out with a simple distribution like Mint. Mint seems to be the current favorite simple distribution. Mint will install a workable Linux system without giving you very many choices. Run Mint for a while. Then you will be knowledgeable enough to install a full blown distribution like Debian, Slackware, Fedora, or OpenSuSE and try out some of the available options that interest you.

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Mint Cinnamon is a good choice. So is Kubuntu (KDE spin). Especially if coming from the M$ world. Otherwise Ubuntu may be a good choice. These distros are easy to install, and plenty to learn. No real reason to go elsewhere as Linux ... is Linux. It really is a matter of finding a GUI that works for 'you'. Underneath it is the same no matter what distro you pick.

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What you're about to do is called distro hopping.

Have fun!

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I started with Slackware, quite by accident (whatever I tried to install first did not work and play well with my machine).

I can attest that Slackware is a darn fine teacher. Once you understand Slackware, no other distro will ever intimidate you.

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paul59,

You are already using Mint, so why not just use it and learn by doing.

You can tweak the existing installation if you wish and this will help to familiarise you with using the command line:

https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspo...-cinnamon.html

If you get bored with Mint, then you can go distro hopping and discover the delights of Debian, EndeavourOS, Arch, Slackware etc.

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