What are the best Linux distros for 2017?
There cannot be a single distro that serves best for every user. Your choice of the distro, is dependent on what you want to use it for, and your personal preferences.
“best” is highly subjective, it depends on what you want out of a distro. For beginners I’d recommend Mint or one of the Ubuntu flavours. Lubuntu and Xubuntu are excellent for lower end computers.
Personally, the best distro for me is KDE Neon (based on Ubuntu) which provides a fully up to date version of KDE (more up to date than Kubuntu) on a stable Ubuntu platform, it’s basically how KDE should be.
Some more advanced users prefer Arch because it gives them more control over how their install works.
Primary things that I would factor in include:
- How powerful my computer is? CPU, RAM.
- What sort of applications I will want? Developers want compilers and editors. Photographers want photo and video editors, many folks just want good browser, eMail, document editors.
- How much I will want to tweak the system to make my life easier in the long run.
- How attached to a Windows UI I am. Or, how amenable I am to learn a new UI.
- How frequently I am ok with updating my OS v/s how may nweest features I need.
Based on these, I would look at List of Linux distributions - Wikipedia, and choose one that suits me.