When I was looking to replace Win 7 with a Distro, I did a lot of research. One of the most interesting charts on Distro's you will ever see is fully updated and on WIKI. You can find it on this WIKI page, top right:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_L ... tributions. Along the top is shown the Year and you can track down to find out the launch date of a Distro. Also, any Distro's that use features of another Distro are connected with a vertical dashed line (about which more later).
What you will notice (after you blow it up so you can actually read it) is that (leaving out the small independents) there are essentially 4 branches to Linux. While the kernel is basically the same, the branches have to do with how the Package Managers work (I think!). Anyway, leaving out Gentoo, the four main branches one hears about all the time are:
- Debian -- [Ubuntu] + [Knoppix]
You will note that Debian is by far the largest, with the largest number of packages (59,000 per WIKI). However, the Distro's inside Debian have distinctions. To give a very basic overview,
Ubuntu is got all the training wheels, lack of choices (and bloat) of Windows. However it is very safe to use. On the other hand,
Debian, YES, just plain 'old
Debian,
https://www.debian.org/ can be downloaded as an OS all by itself! If you do so, there are NO training wheels whatsoever, and you have a lot of choices, including stick with 'stable', or try a bunch of other things, along with almost any desktop you choose.
MX Linux didn't get started until 2013, so scroll to the right on the main Debian line and you will find eventually between
Q4OS and
Tanglu. Note however, that there is a strong red dashed line leading down from MX Linux, and it goes down to
MEPIS and
antiX, both of which started much earlier and are integrated into MX Linux.
I picked MX Linux because it had access to the offerings and stability of Debian, but it did not come with the bloat and Windows-like straight-jacket of Ubuntu. However, my research revealed that
MX does have 'walls' around its offerings, because they place a premium on stability. This is the trade-off that we accept when we come to MX.
If you are looking for more adventure, then just plain 'old
Debian might be for you. You can stay stable, or go further into the wild-side as you wish. It truly is a Pandora's Box of options.
However, if you really build up your Linux 'muscles' and want to tackle the most cutting-edge system out there, Arch Linux is the place to go. Most of the YouTube reviewers, who work in IT, experiment with gaming on Linux machines and are the most knowledgeable in general gravitate to Arch over time because the options and flexibility are unparalleled. The most 'stable' version and best supported Distro in Arch for the more normal person is known as
Manjaro. It gets very good reviews, however, if you make a mistake while using
Manjaro, you had better be good at Linux to correct the problem.
I personally gave real thought to going straight to Debian, or even Manjaro, but in the end I felt it best to commence my Linux journey with MX, which considering my overall ignorance and lack of experience just seemed to have the correct balance.
I would point out to you that with all of these Distro's you can make a 'Live' USB of any Distro, then plug it in on boot-up and give a different Distro a try. Might be fun for you, as you can learn more about Linux like me, as we go along.