Best Linux Distribution (linuxjournal.com)
Linux Journal: We started things off with Best Linux Distribution, and nearly 10,000 readers voted. The winner was Debian, with many commenting "As for servers, Debian is still the best" or similar. One to watch that is rising in the polls is Manjaro (7 percent), which is independently based on the Arch Linux. Manjaro is a favorite for Linux newcomers and is known for its user-friendliness and accessibility. And, now for the top three LJ winners: Debian (33 percent), openSUSE (12 percent), and Fedora (11 percent).
My favorite is Alpine because it is systemd-free, light-weight, and security-focused.
Linux is in far too many places for "a" "best" distro.
But it's not hard to pick candidates for the best for specific purposes.