After many years of bitching, whining, complaining, etc. about windows I think I'm finally ready to bin it. Especially as they seem to be going down the touch screen or nothing route. What about us people with crippled fingers? Anyhoo, I've started looking into Linux and I like. Problem is, there's so much to choose from. I like being able to test them out via usb stick, still, which one's for me. I don't want to test them all one by one. There must be a better way, lol. So please can someone tell me what it is?

I myself am new and think I've settled on a distro. I read as many reviews as I could and looked for the traits that were important to me. After that I tried probably a dozen different versions until I found the one I like the best. Most of the ones I tried I liked but for one reason or another found something I couldn't live with. I think you need to narrow your choices down and then just try several until you find one like I did.

Hi all...

Welcome to the forum

Please watch your language, in part because folks of all ages have access to this forum. Thanks!

What is the brand and model (and model number) of your system? What is your processor and how much memory do you have? How old or new your system is will help determine with distribution and/or desktop environment (Gnome, KDE, LXDE, MATE, etc.,) you will want to use.

Regards...

Some things to take into consideration when choosing a distro. For example is this purely for home use or will you be getting involved in the industry. So for example Umbuntu is very popular for home use because it comes default with a rich library of installs. However if you are going for industry, I prefer the Fedora or CentOS line because it closely matches what I would be working on for employers. Using these two for examples both have strengths and weaknesses. While Umbuntu is rich in download availabilities, many packages are not well tested and might cause errors with other applications. Both Umbuntu and Fedora will have the latest cutting edge versions of software updates, however you are the lab rat test dummy for that applications in the field. Likewise RedHat Enterprise / CentOS will be far more stable because of the vast amount of testing before upgrades are released to those distros making them extraordinarily stable. However they also run months and sometimes years behind on software upgrades because of said testing, thus making them more vulnerable to zero day exploits.

Another thing to consider is how are updates managed? For example RHEL / CentOS / Fedora are using PRM downloads (up2date / yum / ect) where as Umbuntu uses APT, BSD compiles from source code, ect. Which of these are you familiar with and or comfortable work with to keep your system running and provide sources for new software?

Figure out which desktop environment and what applicattions you like and then choose a distro that focuses on them.

Do many distro's allow installation of more than 1 type of desktop environment?

I see the point that some distros are better than others at certain DEs but I find that an odd way to choose. Unity is only available on Ubuntu but aside from that I have seen an awful lot of DEs and window managers on a whole lot of other distros looking fine. As long as the distro doesn't mess with things any DE ought to work as well.
Every distro I know allows for many DEs.

Welcome aboard.
Linux is freedom for your computer, you can install what you like.
As for the perfect distro, that is a personal choice, but I would suggest you at least take a look at AntiX MX, a middle weight distro, run it live & see. http://antix.mepis.com/index.php?title=Main_Page

I'm biased because I use a distro that focuses solely on KDE and do not offer other DE's. But yeah you can just use Mint or whatever.

I've tried KDE on Fedora, Mint, Ubuntu, Debian, Slackware and some others. It was the same DE, surprisingly, on all of them.
Of course you have your favourite DE but so does everyone else.

There is not really a better way to do it, since choosing a distro is very much a personal thing and your requirements or wishes how a distro should be may even shift over time.
We may help, though, to narrow the number of choices down if you provide us with a little bit more information:
1. Which hardware (especially CPU and amount of RAM) do you intend to use?
2. What do you actually want to do with the system?
3. How much are you willing to learn about the inner workings of Linux? Do you prefer to be able to change every little setting using configuration files or do you prefer using GUI dialogs to change settings?
4. Do you prefer stability over getting always the newest software, or the other way around? Maybe a mix of both?

Please provide as much info as you can, this will make it easier for us to help you.

Go for Ubuntu.. awesome distro if you want to learn/experiment stuff.

Yes it is the same DE on all of those. But If you're are asking me why I'm choosing distro X over distro Y when they both have the same DE's then my answer is community. With distro I'm currently using I can chat directly with devs on irc, I like the forums, I like the community repositories where users can upload packages. I like the fact I can influence decisions and have direct feedback.

So my advice for op would just be to distro hop and try lesser known distros, maybe you find something awesome

This is a extremely common question and impossible to answer. Many people here have tested several distro's and DE's. They like different ones. They will tell you what they like which is not answering your question. You will like the one that you like. So you must try different ones to know which one that is. It's similar to asking, "what food will I like". If you want to learn the universal linux environment, that would be the terminal (and even that can vary).
But.. Some pointers for perspective.

• There is no "official" linux distro
• For the same reason, there are no "off-shoot" linux distro's
• Distro's are created and maintained by people who like that distro and want it to improve
• Different distro's have different goals. Some want a extremely minimal system because the users already have a setup in mind. Others have no idea what they want setup, so one is chosen for them in a "some sizes fit most" manner.
• A distro is a set of programs installed. You may remove or install other programs.
• A Desktop Environment (DE) is a program installed that lets you move a mouse around and click things. KDE, Cinnamon, Mate, Xfce, Unity are some DE's

1 members found this post helpful.

I came over to Linux approx. 2 months ago, and have also been looking for the "best" distro for me, personally, so I've been doing a lot of distro-hopping in the meantime. There are hundreds of distros to choose from, and I was a bit bewildered at first about it until I saw the list of the current top 100 most popular distros people show interest in on www.distrowatch.com. From that list I mostly concentrate on the top 50 or so and read the description of each on that site, and if one piques my interest, I download the ISO file and burn it on a disk and check it out by live-boot. I also frequently get on YouTube where there are techies who give tutorials about the distros. Spatry is very good at explaining each distro that the average user can understand easily. I also ordered a 32 GB flash drive with about 27 Linux distros on it, made by Vladstel, from Amazon.com, and live-booted them. I've also burned about 30 discs, myself, and so far, my favorite distros over all that I've checked out are Mint 17.1 Cinnamon and Linux LXLE, for ease of use by a newbie like myself, and that have a very nice look, and that contain at least most of what I want in an OS right out of the box. Like you, Tim, I also spent many years yelling, whining and complaining about Windoze's endless problems until I finally got fed up with Micro$oft and determined to learn to use Linux. Windows 8's awkward and confusing and aggravating UI and lack of an efficient start menu was the straw that broke this camel's back. LOL I hope I've helped you with this, Tim, and may I strongly recommend that you try Mint and Zorin, which are excellent distros for Linux newbies, very easy to learn and which have a Windows 7 feel to them.