what linux version is the best?

[jumbo9i0]

say am a programmer, if i don't want to purchase windows 10 license key but which linux version has most similarity functions to windows 10?

 

[zeusthemoose]

If you are looking for a windows 10 experience without buying a windows key, why not just use windows and not activate it?

[Stahlmann]

You can also just buy a Windows 10 OEM key for 10-20$...

 

Or just don't activate it. You can still use Windows but most customization options are disabled.

[Cyracus]

4 minutes ago, Stahlmann98 said:

most customization options are disabled.

most of them have workarounds, it's just the settings menu is locked

[NelizMastr]

There is no Linux distro that works exactly like Windows. You'll need to adapt to the differences, find alternatives to Windows software (i.e. no Microsoft Office support, so you'll need to use something else) and become acquainted with the command line as even in the very decent UX found in PopOS, Ubuntu and Linux Mint, you'll need to use it occasionally.

[Eigenvektor]

As someone who is a developer and uses Linux as a development platform at home (mainly Java/Kotlin/Android) I would agree that "best" is highly subjective.

 

I've used Ubuntu in the past until it no longer met my needs. I'm now using Antergos (Arch), which is decidedly not Linux-beginner friendly. I'm also using Debian on my VPS and some CentOS at work. Each has its strengths and weaknesses and may be better suited for certain tasks.

[suryanararayananv]

No Linux distro has similar function to windows. Linux is built to be more stable and fast. It’s not really intuitive to use i.e it has a steep learning curve. 
 

If your only concern is to not activate windows, why not use it without activating? You will loose only personalisation features. If u can’t give that up use something like KMS activator(Bear in mind that this is strictly illegal).

 

if you just want to try some distros, I’d say Ubuntu (because of the massive support and user base) or fedora(it has tools for developers pre installed).

Just keep in mind that distros don’t really matter that much. If u like a feature on some other distro you can easily install it on your distro 99% of the time.

[Mystical Kimchi]

"Best" Linux distro is highly subjective. The KDE Plasma 5 desktop environment will likely give you a desktop experience most similar to Windows, and you can use that on any Linux distro. I personally like Gentoo and the Gentoo variant called Funtoo. I also think that Gentoo is a great distro for developers. It may be true that it's not as user-friendly as Ubuntu, Mint, Elementary, and so on, but it is chock full of developer tools. If you plan on doing cross-compiling for other architectures, I think it would be hard to beat Gentoo.

 

And although it's not Linux, and it has some rough edges when it comes to the desktop user experience, I'd also plug FreeBSD as an option if you're looking for a good OS platform for software development.

[lidua]

i would recommend arch with kde. You can also install manjaro which is much easier to install.