Some notes on Linux - Opensource and the whole GNU :)
I prefer XFCE because it is highly configurable for the resources used. It is fairly intuitive as well. So gage you hardware needs - how much ram you have - how old your hardware is, do you have a broadcom wifi card -
some distros will require you to get proprietary drivers and media codecs.
Now for distro choices:
Less muss and fuss: Mint, Ubuntu Studio, Korora-dead?. Light weight champs - Bodhi, Q4os, Peppermint, AntiX, Sparky Minimal, LXLE. Fast: Xubuntu, Manjaro, Bodhi, Swag Arch, MX.
Notable: Mageia is just cool in many subtle ways - but more experience is required. Xubuntu - underrated.
There are studio versions for artists - Ubuntu Studio, Sparky Multimedia, Fedora. Latest Testing:
Recently testing Open Mandriva - fast Plasma - would not recommend for anything easrlier the 1st gen corei5 and i7.
Very Nice. It jumps into my regular usage. New test subject- Shark Linux. Shark is an interesting hybrid. Peppermint- one I
am always using is an LXDE XFCE hybrid. Shark is an XFCE - Mate hybrid. It is FAST! Setting it up is different from other buntu distros.