Linux

nixos, same as the last 10 years. more packages than ever on it, and I'm better at wrangling nix stuff now for my own packages. Besides my personal machines, I also use it to admin several servers for work. All the config for all the machines goes into git and I can see exactly what changed and when, configuration-wise.

Depends from wish of tinkering otherwise nixos very stable and not breaking between upgrades at all

If l have a nice pc definitly qubes os

Best of both worlds -- Debian + Nix home-manager. Debian gives you incredible stability and plenty of usage resources. Nix gives you anything too new for Debian and functionally confines the more experimental end of your config to user space.

Void. Second choice, debian.

I'd go with Ubuntu LTS - it receives updates for 5 years and security updates only for another 5 years. In other words, it is explicitly for your use case. Additionally, it offers kernel live patching as a free managed service, which nobody else offers afaik.

Ubuntu and essentially every other answer is wrong.

if I had to bet on one distro for the next 5 years and I had to stay on it, it would be Ubuntu.

I run Arch right now but I would never bet on Arch.

Debian is a strong contender but the past six months I've been using nixos as my daily driver and loving it.

Kubuntu. It just works for me. It might not have the latest plasma , but i really like kubuntu.

Spending time thinking about which distro to use is time that could have been spent learning how Linux works as a whole.

NixOS unstable. I like being able to define my system as code. I also don't need that high of stability and would rather have more up to date software in most cases. I have thought about using stable releases for things like basic http and DNS servers but haven't gotten around to it yet.

I still like Arch the most. Since ~22 years now.

My priorities:

• Secure. Unlike popular belief, the fact that the worlds infrastructure basically runs on Linux does not imply that your average Desktop Linux distro enjoys the same level of scrutiny when it comes to its security. Hence, the security-conscious should carefully pick a distro that can handle their threat model. Or, at least harden it to their liking.
• Stateless. Conventionally, you will be met with a (relatively) minimal system after installation. After which you're expected to configure it to your liking and go smooth sailing afterwards. Occasionally, you might (un)install stuff and/or modify settings; but nothing out of the ordinary, really. While applying some of these changes might seem trivial, they (kinda) lead your system to accumulate cruft. This cruft might seem innocuous, but it's exactly why your system seems so fresh after a reinstall. Foregoing this altogether is referred to as going stateless. This is done by declaring a desired state and 'flushing' all changes that have not been declared. Many other benefits are associated with this, but I digress...

The above^[So, without even going into release cadence etc.] already dictates the use of NixOS with the impermanence and nix-mineral modules.

Server or workstation?