I've been using Linux desktop distros for almost 30 years. Recently, I looked at many of the top Linux desktop distros both for beginners and for experts. Then, I spent the last few days looking at the latest version of Linux Mint 20.3, "Una." And, once more, Linux Mint is the best desktop distro for both newcomers and veteran users.
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Read nowAs always, I like Mint's default Gnome-2-based Cinnamon desktop. But Mint gives you a choice of many fully supported interfaces, including MATE, a Gnome-2 fork, and the ultra-lightweight Xfce. Most desktop users will be pleased with Cinnamon or MATE. But if you have older low-powered systems, Xfce is an excellent choice.
Even PCs built in the 2000s can run Mint; if your PC has a 64-bit AMD/Intel processor, it can run Mint. The full version of Linux Mint requires a mere 2GB of RAM, but you can run it with a mere 1GB.
This is not Windows -- where running on 4GB is just asking for trouble.
You'll also need at least 20GB of disk space, but Mint recommends 100GB. Finally, you'll need a graphics card and monitor that supports a 1024