Best Linux distro for 2019

Linux is more than an OS. It’s an idea where everybody grows together and there’s something for everybody. Without Linux, technology simply wouldn’t meet the demands of today’s ever-evolving world. Because of that, developers are constantly working to improve the environment with which they work. One way to manage such improvements is to have the right platform to start with.

The number of polished distros out there, offering variants.Even though we have hundreds of distributions, we have created a list of distro based popularity, features and ease of usage. Each distro has its unique features and you should select based on your requirement.

So, let's get started -

Arch Linux

Arch Linux is developed predominantly with free and open-source software and supports community involvement.  A package manager has written specifically for Arch Linux, Pacman is used to install, remove and update software packages. It is an x86-64 general purpose GNU/Linux distribution versatile enough to suit any role.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu is complete Desktop, Server and Mobile Linux distributions. It is the Windows of the Linux world because of its easiness and completeness.  Another good feature of theUbuntu is we can get both free community and pain professional support from different parties like Ubuntu creator Canonical. Ubuntu provides different tastes of the GUI like Gnome, KDE, Xfce, Lxde, Unity etc.  Unity is created by Ubuntu teams to make Ubuntu experience unique and better.

OpenSUSE

OpenSUSE is the community program and open source version of the SUSE Enterprise Linux. OpenSUSE is used as a testbed for SUSE Enterprise Linux distribution. OpenSUSE is one of the easiest distributions in the Linux world and it aims to be used by more people. OpenSUSE is very popular amongst the Applications developers because of its roots with the different popular libraries and support for them. OpenSUSE provides complete Linux experience with the different Desktop environment like GNOME, KDE, LXDE, MATE, Cinnamon etc. Its package management is also easy with zypper.

Debian

Debian is the source of a lot of different distributions like Ubuntu, Mint etc. Debian is very old Linux distribution which is created in 1996 with a completely open source philosophy. It strictly runs its open source and free software policy. Debian has 3 main release paths unstable, testing and stable. The unstable release provides bleeding edge software with a lot of bugs. The testing release provides stable but currently testing software with little bugs. The stable release provides very stable and robust packages. The stable release uses the old version of the packages because of its package maturity policy.

Linux Mint

Linux Mint is the most Popular Linux Distribution.  Mint is elegant, modern and comfortable and offers some Proprietary software packages for media Playback. Mint offers two GNOME-based Desktop environments: Mate and Cinnamon. The Mate is designed from the Outdated GNOME 2 desktop and cinnamon is modern and gives neat menus and awesome Nemo which is much like Windows Explorer. This Popular Linux Distro is based on Ubuntu and Debian.

Fedora

Fedora is a community project of the RedHat Enterprise Linux. Fedora provides recent package versions with different flavors. Fedora is used as a testbed for RHEL and provides a lot of packages then RHEL. Fedora is mainly designed for performance where it can beat the major Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Kali with its benchmarks. Fedora community is also very helpful to solve problems. Fedora provides all major desktop environments like GNOME, KDE, Xfce, LXDE, Mate and Cinnamon.

Mageia

Mageia is forked from the Mandriva Linux distribution. It was developed by the former Mandriva employees and other users, supporters of Mandriva. KDE is the default desktop environment, however, you can choose the GNOME as your Desktop GUI.  LXDE, LXQt, Cinnamon, MATE, and Enlightenment are also available. Mageia users can install RPM Packages in their system. It offers a very large repository of software, such as productivity applications and a large variety of games.

Gentoo

Gentoo Operating system built on top of Linux kernel and based on the Portage package management system. Unlike traditional software distribution, You have to compile the software packages in your own system based on the system configuration. It’s easily the most flexible distribution around, and you can configure it to be as stable or bleeding edge as you need. Essentially, Gentoo is whatever you make it.

Manjaro

Manjaro is a fast, user-friendly, desktop and end-user oriented Linux distributions. Manjaro Linux is based on Arch Linux. Manjaro mainly makes Arch Linux detailed, geek-friendly more easy, simple and user-friendly. Manjaro provides a lot of different desktop environments like XFCE, KDE, Openbox, Cinnamon, Mate, Deepin etc.

Zorin OS

Zorin OS is an Ubuntu-based, highly polished Linux distribution, entirely made for Windows refugees. Although pretty much every Linux distro is usable by everybody, some people might tend to be reluctant when the desktop looks too alien. Zorin OS dodges past this obstacle because of its similarities with Windows appearance wise. Anything you need, there's a good chance it’s already installed on Zorin OS. Zorin OS comes with an amazing theme engine called the ‘Zorin look changer’. It offers some heavy customization options with presets to make your OS look like Windows 7, XP, 2000 or even a Mac for that matter.

Solus

Solus is one of the newcomers to the scene and is already making serious breakthroughs. The distribution will give you a clean and polished experience. The robust repositories include any software that you can imagine that are always get updates with every release. The desktop environment is also known as 'Budgie' is attractive, simple and clean and offers a similar experience to Chrome OS without the need to purchase a Chromebook. You will get all the software that you need from the GNOME desktop environment, which is light and fast.

Condres OS

Condres OS is a modern Arch-based high-performance Linux distribution aimed at today’s cloud computing enthusiasts. It was built to have a beautiful and intuitive UI which makes it easy to use and all of its functions to be easily accessible. It is also security conscious as it ships with Suricata, a high-performance Network IDS, IPS, and network security monitoring engine for intrusion detection.

Pop Linux

POP Linux is a new Linux distro designed to have minimal clutter on the desktop. The creators of Pop OS system 76  specialize in building custom Linux PCs, and they have managed to tweak the Pop with the necessary improvements on the graphical interface. Switching between integrated Intel graphics and a dedicated NVidia graphics with a single mouse click. However, you can install NVidia drivers when doing the first time installation instead of using the open source Nouveau drivers that are present in most distributions.

Tails

Tails is another Debian based OS with privacy in mind. Tails do not store any data by default that is why most developers refer to it as the amnesiac distribution. Tails works with Tor browsers for all network connectivity and the OS can operate from a flash disk and can disguise itself to look like windows in public. Everything on Tails is encrypted this includes messaging, emails, and files.

Flatcar Linux

Flatcar Linux is an immutable Linux distribution specifically built for containers. It is based on CoreOS’s container Linux but is built from source and thus, is independent of the CoreOS’s Container Linux project. Flatcar Linux is designed to simplify management in large clusters which makes it ideal for running Kubernetes

Stock photo from Razvan Dan Paun