I've been using Fedora with Plasma since forever as my desktop, I don't even have a physical Windows install anymore. IMO Fedora is one of the most underrated gems out there.
It has great stuff like:
- Cutting edge packages and technologies: Kernel/Mesa gets updates, apps are usually updated, flatpak over snapd, etc.
- Secure out of the box: SELinux is enabled, and so is the firewall (Ubuntu used to keep it off, not sure now)
- Works with upstream: No weird patches changing behavior, you can report straight to upstream most of the time.
- Great development tooling: Pretty much all of my devtools are packaged and updated. Debug packages are available so I can report bugs to upstream too (unlike Arch)
- It just works™: I don't need to worry about updates breaking. For casual users, Fedora Workstation has a working GNOME Software for flatpak, UEFI updates and RPM packages, decent OOTB packages and NVIDIA support is just a click away.
Minimal install and non-GNOME desktops environments are available too, if you want a more fine-tuned experience.
I also really like Debian, mostly for the opposite reasons, and run it in my server.
- Stable packages: Behavior stays the same, it doesn't download MBs of patches. Backports are available if I need something newer.
- Multiple branches: If I do need something newer, swapping to testing is a breeze and usually stable. Perfect for desktops.
- Great integration: It patches packages to provide a cohesive ecosystem. It is specially great when upstream has weird defaults.
- Runs everywhere: x86, x86_64, ARMv7, AARCH64, MIPS, PowerPC, you name it. There is even some non-Linux kernel ports available.
- It just works™: I never had a single issue updating a Debian system from a version to another, the changes are well documented too.
Maybe some day I'll migrate to CentOS, but for my server, I don't think I need 10 years of support lmao. Those two are the quintessential Linux experience IMO, covering pretty much all usecases.
As for other distros:
- Most "lightweight" distros (AntiX/MX Linux/etc) are usually Debian/Ubuntu based anyway, might as well get the real deal and just config it a bit to look nice. Debian XFCE looks ugly OOTB but it is just an "apt install arc-theme papirus-icon-theme" of looking modern.
- Manjaro is a mess of a distro with major mismanagement issues, and their "hold back packages" policy is nonsense. I had more issues with Manjaro than plain Arch (which just works except for "manual intervention" updates which gets posted here). Do yourself a favor and use an Arch installer, or learn to read, as the install guide is pretty easy to follow.
- Ubuntu is still nice, but I dislike snapd and prefer a more vanilla experience, so I don't use it anymore. Mint is a decent fork, as they do build some significant stuff in-house. So is PopOS, if you like GNOME.