If you're not familiar with linux much, the best distros to start with are the ones with the largest communities. That means more support for edge-case stuff.

If you're not familiar with linux much, the best distros to start with are the ones with the largest communities. That means more support for edge-case stuff. If you've used Debian before, stick with it. Your system's specs are fine; you don't need a 'lightweight' distro for it. [1] Debian has a couple more warts than Ubuntu, as the latter is more user-friendly by design, but Debian is 'cleaner'. You'll also have an easier time if you use Debian Stable or Ubuntu LTS releases (and just upgrade necessary packages). 'Rolling distros' are more up-to-date in general, but they can break on you (fine if you don't mind fiddling, but annoying if you just want to get on with stuff). Rolling distros become less painful as you skill up in unix-ese. [1] actually, depends on the ram of the system. the CPU is fine, but I misread max supported ram as current ram. If you've got 4GB, you're fine. If you've got 1GB, go for a lightweight dekstop (and stay away from modern websites).