easiest linux distro for noob

[Midnitewarrior4]

so im making a cheap ass build and cant spend money on an os, so im turning to linux, whats the easiest and most widely used distro ? im looking to mostly do folding at home, and some gaming, again never used linux or installed, just need something simple yet effective

[MoonlightSylv]

Ubuntu or Elementary OS

[Midnitewarrior4]

Ubuntu or Elementary OS

ubuntu looks pretty cool, might give that a go, ill keep the thread open for other suggestions tho

[Azgoth 2]

Linux Mint.  It's built on the stable/LTS versions of Ubuntu, so the core code is generally going to be extremely reliable and stable.  Plus, the default desktop environment--Cinnamon--is less resource intensive and much more customizeable than Unity.  It also comes pre-bundled with more multimedia codecs, but you can always download those on Ubuntu.  Aside from a few other miscellaneous settings here and there, and some built-in tools unique to each OS (couldn't give you a list of them), it's more or less Ubuntu under the hood.  But it's a bit more lightweight, it's one of the most mature Linux distros that's beginner-friendly, and it's generally just a great OS.  Easy to use, and you almost always have the option of using the command line or interacting with the system at a lower/more intimate level, or of using built-in tools and GUIs.

 

Ubuntu is a great distro, though.  I just prefer Mint, personally.

[SubTract]

I agree with Azgoth. Mint is the way to go.

[thedigitaldoctor]

Another vote for Mint. Mmmmm...minty...

[Splork]

You might want to take a look at Antergos, which is basically Arch without the Arch.

 

It is based on Arch so you get all the rolling-release goodness, but it comes with a proper installer, so you don't have to build it yourself.

[XDroidie626]

Not Ubuntu, not by a long shot, I have had no end of GPU driver issues for Ubuntu.

I would recommend Manjaro, it can install GPU drivers for you, its rolling release but behind arch a little bit, its very up to date, and they made it super easy to do kernel swapping, like it was hard in Arch anyways.