Some distros introduce Linux. These five actually make people stay.

PCWorld’s guide helps users navigate the overwhelming choice of approximately 250 Linux distributions by focusing on five main strains: Debian, Red Hat/Fedora, Arch, Slackware, and Gentoo.

Linux Mint will be slowing down how often it releases its namesake distro. We'll still see the next distro not long after Ubuntu 26.04 appears. Mint will continue to support X11 and Wayland for now.