My $0.02: For the desktop, Ubuntu has a huge thing going for it: proper font rendering configured by default. Every other distro looks like you're back in the

My $0.02: For the desktop, Ubuntu has a huge thing going for it: proper font rendering configured by default. Every other distro looks like you're back in the 90s, to get decent fonts you're expected to patch libraries or/and fine-tune fontconfig (and enjoy your efforts break or get broken by OS updates). But Ubuntu by default renders text better than OSX or Windows, in my humble opinion. Just make sure to install TrueType fonts from Windows and Mac (Consolas is a must, IMO). For educational purposes Arch would be my pick because it uses completely different (and vastly simplified) "flat" configuration. Most of the system config is stored in just one file. Also, the Arch documentation, the community and default behavior make it easy to see what's under the hood, yet keep it simple and approachable. If one's goal is to understand how a Linux distro is assembled of various components and how they fit together, Arch is hard to beat. CentOS/RHEL are great for understanding a typical default server environment used by most enterprises. For example if your goal is to learn SELinux or systemd, that's what I would recommend.