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just look around here, a lot of different linux distros and all of them with good community (and most of them are stable enough). So just use your preferred one, or try several...
If you are new to Linux and want to use Ubuntu I would suggest Linux Mint. It is based on Ubuntu but the Mint team tuned the stupid out of this distro.
They have included many things that one would use for a desktop system Video codecs, Music players. etc.
If you are going to do command line only w/o xWindows it doesnt matter much as you will have a long learning curve ahead. I use Redhat at work and Mint or Fedora on desktops.
If you're coming from Windows you may want to try a KDE distro to start with. Personally I recommend PcLinux to new users, it uses KDE as desktop and has an easy to use GUI control center, and is a rolling release distro so you won't have to reinstall every six months.
My personal favorite is Slackware, maybe because I started with it. It does have a steeper learning curve, but, once you are around that curve, its elegant simplicity keeps calling me back.
Being a newbie myself, I tried the CentOS and had some troubles getting it to work successfully on my desktop. Then I tried Linux Mint, and actually enjoyed that one as it was easy to setup, and documentation for this was easy to find and understand. I still use this on one of my desktops at home. Then I tried Ubuntu 12.04, and found that it was really to understand and use from the start. I have since upgraded the 3 desktops I have at home to Ubuntu 14.04 and my kids use it without any issues. I also found the Ubuntu 14.04 server to be just as easy to learn and pickup, as well as documentation is easily available for Ubuntu as well......... I will keep using and improving my skills with the Ubuntu distro's for a while, at least until I need to go back to CentOS to prep for my Linux Certs......
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