The title sounds familiar ? Ofcourse it does. Its the most common question asked by the average newbie who wants to try out linux, or sometimes even for the user who wants to migrate from one distro to another.
This thread is made so that all such questions can be asked here itself, and so that the forum won't be messy.
Here are a few online tests to determine the right distro:
http://www.zegeniestudios.net/ldc/index.php
http://polishlinux.org/choose/quiz/
http://www.tuxs.org/chooser/
Warning: All of them recommend OpenSuSE, Ubuntu and Fedora for everything, without reason. Whatever you choose, you are likely to end up with those three in the list, even if you specifically ask the script for something thats light on resources. So beware.
Now here is how you ask that question here:
1. State the exact configuration of the system, including partition alloted for linux, right here.
2. State your main use for the distro.
3. State your experience level.
4. State how you understand an ideal distro to be. How do you want the interface to be ?
5. State how entusiastic you are about learning stuff. Are you intrested to spend time learning your way into the new distro ? If so, how long ?
6. Finally, state WHY you need to be suggested a new distro. Are you not happy with windows ? If so, why ? Do you expect some special feature from the linux distribution you are going to try out that was not there in the previous OS ? Are you one of those people who outgrew their previous distro, and hence want something leaner and/or with better performance ?
Best of Luck and Happy Distroing.