Linux Mint
The friendliest landing spot for people leaving Windows.
Cinnamon (also MATE, Xfce)
Every distro we cover
All 14 distributions, sorted from the most beginner-friendly to the most advanced. Tap any card for the full review, or let the quiz pick for you.
Zorin OS
Built to make Windows switchers feel at home on day one.
GNOME (Zorin Appearance layouts)
elementary OS
A beautiful, macOS-like experience focused on simplicity.
Pantheon
Lubuntu
The lightweight Ubuntu flavour for reviving old laptops.
LXQt
MX Linux
Fast, friendly Debian with genuinely useful homegrown tools.
Xfce / KDE / Fluxbox
Pop!_OS
Ubuntu, polished for developers, creators and gamers.
COSMIC
Ubuntu
The default starting point for most newcomers to Linux.
GNOME
Debian
The rock-solid foundation a huge chunk of Linux is built on.
GNOME (installer choice)
Fedora Workstation
Modern, close-to-upstream Linux favoured by developers.
GNOME
Manjaro
Arch power with the rough edges sanded off.
KDE Plasma / GNOME / Xfce
openSUSE Tumbleweed
A rolling release that's tested hard before it reaches you.
KDE Plasma / GNOME
EndeavourOS
Near-vanilla Arch with a friendly graphical installer.
KDE / GNOME / Xfce / others
Kali Linux
A purpose-built toolkit for security testing — not a daily driver.
Xfce
Arch Linux
Build it yourself — total control, nothing you didn't install.
None by default
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How to read this list
The difficulty dots show roughly how much Linux know-how a distro expects, from one dot (install it and go) to five (you'll be reading documentation). If you're brand new, start near the top of the list — Linux Mint and Ubuntu are the most common first distros for good reason. Want a recommendation tailored to your hardware and goals? The distro chooser takes about a minute.