I would start with gentoo. This is a horrible, horrendous distro to actually work with (I will make a few friends here...) but there is nothing better to unders

I would start with gentoo. This is a horrible, horrendous distro to actually work with (I will make a few friends here...) but there is nothing better to understand how Linux works. You have to painfully install every bit of the system and you gain fantastic knowledge on the way. Then, once it is installed, you can delete it and install something which works, namely Ubuntu (which is obviously the best system on earth). I do not know for desktops, I only use Linux on servers. Source : I forced all my admins through that 15 to 20 years ago and that still talk to me.