I've been through a fair few Linux distributions on the way to landing on Nobara KDE. Some were great, some were fine, some were a mess. Here's my honest take on each one.
Ubuntu
Ubuntu is the obvious starting point for most people and for good reason — it's straightforward, well documented, and things mostly just work. The main issue for me is GNOME. It's not that GNOME is broken, it's that I find it ugly and surprisingly hard to customise the way I actually want. The desktop feels rigid. Ubuntu is a solid distro let down by a desktop environment that doesn't suit everyone.
Kubuntu
Kubuntu is basically Ubuntu with KDE slapped on top instead of GNOME — which sounds great in theory, since KDE is far more customisable. In practice it ended up feeling a bit awkward. You can tell it wasn't designed from the ground up with KDE in mind. It felt glitchy and inconsistent in ways that a proper KDE distro doesn't. The underlying Ubuntu base is fine but the combination felt like it was fighting itself.
Lubuntu
Lubuntu is Ubuntu with the LXQt desktop, aimed at lighter hardware. It works fine for what it is — if you've got an older machine and just need something functional, it'll do the job. But it carries all of Ubuntu's quirks and the desktop environment is pretty barebones. Not something I'd daily drive by choice.
Debian
Debian is solid and extremely stable — it's what a lot of other distros are built on, including Ubuntu. The catch is that it requires more manual setup than most. Every time I've used it, I've had to manually add repositories to get the software I actually need. It's not difficult if you know what you're doing, but it's an extra step that more beginner-friendly distros handle for you. Great for servers, a bit more friction for a desktop.
Fedora
Fedora is genuinely good. It's stable, modern, and well put together. The main thing that held me back is that it needs some extra configuration for gaming — certain codecs and drivers aren't included out of the box for licensing reasons. Once you've sorted that it's great, but it's an extra step. If you're not a gamer it's probably near the top of the list.
Arch
Arch is the distro people recommend when they want to feel superior about their setup. I get why people like it — the control is real, and if you build it yourself you understand every piece of it. But that's also a lot of work, and when something breaks you're on your own. The Arch Wiki is excellent though, genuinely one of the best resources in the Linux world regardless of what distro you're on.
Garuda Linux
Garuda is Arch-based but removes most of the pain. You get the Arch ecosystem and the rolling release model without having to build everything from scratch yourself. It worked well, felt snappy, and gave me access to the AUR without the installation headache. A good middle ground if you want Arch without the suffering.
Raspberry Pi OS
Raspberry Pi OS is exactly what it says on the tin — a Debian-based distro built for Raspberry Pi hardware. It does that job well. Not something I'd reach for on a regular machine but it's the right tool for the right hardware.
Nobara KDE — where I landed
Nobara is what I use now and it's the best all-round distro I've tried. It's Fedora-based but with gaming patches, multimedia codecs, and various quality-of-life fixes applied out of the box. The stuff that requires extra setup on vanilla Fedora is just already done. KDE Plasma on top gives you a desktop that's genuinely beautiful and endlessly customisable. It feels like the distro that has the least friction between "installed" and "actually usable the way I want."