Best linux OS?

[regex]

How easy is it to use for gaming? Steam works alright I hope? (Sorry, never had any experience with Linux)

Should be fine right out of the box, but you'll have to get the right drivers for your video card. Other than that, just like any other switch in OS, you'll have some learning to do so make sure you have a smart phone, tablet, or another computer handy for web searches.

[LordFerret]

... UEFI BIOS ...

Not to derail, just a small side-step:

Gads I hate layers... backdoors.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/2476651/malware-vulnerabilities/your-pc-or-laptop-may-have-a-backdoor-enabled-by-default-millions-do.html

https://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/35110.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/37c38l/uefi_backdoor_allows_root_exploit_in_linux/

I'll imagine Macs are susceptible as well.

[legoclone09]

Ubuntu is what I like most. Probably cause I use it.

[Stone Blue]

^^ EEshh...One more reason i think i will stick with an (original) Win7 PC as long as I can...IIRC, these should be non-UEFI BIOS...??...I think UEFI was introduced around the time Win8 came out... ??

[Harry Rhodan]

I knew I wanted a low-footprint Linux distro, and came up with 3 choices: Kubuntu

KDE is basically the most resource heavy desktop environment there is in the linux world.

[LordFerret]

^^ EEshh...One more reason i think i will stick with an (original) Win7 PC as long as I can...IIRC, these should be non-UEFI BIOS...??...I think UEFI was introduced around the time Win8 came out... ??

Round about mid-1990's, long before Win8... pre-XP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface

[Pixel of Life]

Kubuntu. I've been using it for ages. Currently rocking Kubuntu 15.04 as the primary OS on my laptop and as the secondary OS on my desktop (because glorious 64bit KSP), with Win10 as the primary.

[malte]

I went from Ubuntu to Kubuntu and then I switched to Mint, I'm not saying it is the best but I like it

[Gasofidas]

I played with a lot of distros, mostly from the services server point of view, I found that the debian based apt package management is the one that fits me best (debian, ubuntu, mint,...) but there are other distros which are based on rpm packages (centos/red hat, fedora, mageia, opensuse,...) and others that distribute only configurations for direct package source compiling (gentoo, sabayon,...), and there is also Arch Linux wich provides a mix of both precompiled and source based.

On the desktop view, tried a lot of them, gnome, kde, cinnamon, mate, unity, xfce, xlde, openbox... you name it, all of them are usable but ones more than others, just pick the one that fits you best, in my case it's mate but cinnamon is mostly the same with sugar on top.

In the debian-flavour side I would pick a desktop I like and then a distro that supports it well. I'm looking for stability and no headaches, so I go straight to pure debian but for the users looking for the more up-to-date packages they should look into ubuntu (more updated debian) or one of the derivatives.

The great advantage of ubuntu and derivatives is that it's the one distro that most the manufacturers are looking to in order to make their drivers, games, etc... compatible and working. Another advantage is that is really easy to use, but the default desktop "Unity" is one thing that usually you either love or hate. Ubuntu works well is very well supported and tons and tons of documentation are available.

Linus Mint is a ubuntu derivate with a especial focus on two desktops, cinnamon and mate, very well supported, good looking and usable, but updates to follow ubuntu lag just a bit behind the official and my experience with it was jumping into bugs more often than not.

But just look http://distrowatch.com/ if you are interested in a popularity contest of linux distros.

Edited October 4, 2015 by Gasofidas
added some more info

[Stone Blue]

Round about mid-1990's, long before Win8... pre-XP.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unified_Extensible_Firmware_Interface

This snippet from the link above:

"In 2009, IBM shipped System x machines (x3550 M2, x3650 M2, iDataPlex dx360 M2) and BladeCenter HS22 with UEFI capability. Dell shipped PowerEdge T610, R610, R710, M610 and M710 servers with UEFI capability. More commercially available systems are mentioned in a UEFI whitepaper.[64]

In 2011, major vendors (such as ASRock, Asus, Gigabyte, and MSI) launched several consumer-oriented motherboards using the Intel 6-series LGA 1155 chipset and AMD 9 Series AM3+ chipsets with UEFI.[65]

With the release of Windows 8 in October 2012, Microsoft's certification requirements now require that computers include firmware that implements the UEFI specification. Furthermore, if the computer supports the "Connected Standby" feature of Windows 8 (which allows devices to have power management comparable to smartphones, with an almost instantaneous return from standby mode), then the firmware is not permitted to contain a Compatibility Support Module (CSM). As such, systems that support Connected Standby are incapable of booting Legacy BIOS operating systems.[66][67]"

Yes, UEFI has been around quite awhile, but it wasnt till, really, with Win 8 release, that MS pretty much started FORCING it on all new hardware running Win 8...

[Lord Aurelius]

I would also recommend Linux Mint. It has great compatibility since it's essentially a modified Ubuntu, but it has a much more sensible and usable UI and configuration.

[Newt]

It does not seem to really be a thing that you can answer. There are so many, and by far most of them are perfectly decent, and so similar that you can basically treat them as the same things merely with different default arrangements. I have yet to find one that has not been fun and easy to mess around with, though I certainly have not tried all of them.