CachyOS. I use it because I am a fan of Arch based systems, rolling releases etc, but CachyOS is optimised for my generation of hardware, and has lots of good default configurations for various apps. They have a customised proton version, a good default fish profile etc.

tl;dr It’s Arch, but optimised, and slightly more pre-configured out of the box.

Arch because it helped me understand the os better and i like tinkering. Also pacman and the aur

Ubuntu because I’m old, uncool, and tired

Previously arch now NixOS, just love the reproducibility.

Xubuntu. Convenience of ubuntu, less cluttered UI.

Kubuntu, because when I got my Vega 56 GPU on release day (August 14, 2017), I had to download the proprietary driver straight from AMD to get it working, and Ubuntu was the only distro supported by both it and Steam at the time. (Otherwise, I would’ve picked Debian or Mint.)

I don’t love Ubuntu (especially how they push Snap), but I can’t be bothered with the hassle of reinstalling my OS.

I use NixOS for my desktop because I hate myself you can configure everything without needing to edit a bunch of different config files that use different configuration languages.

I use Arch btw for my Minecraft server because I am crazy.

OMG I use cachyOS too, for the same reasons, plus I love how much I can tinker with it.

from the comments, there’s a split between

• linux as a tool: debian, mint, fedora, opensuse, etc.
• linux as a toy: arch, gentoo, nixos, etc.

i wish this split was made more explicit, because more often than not someone comes looking for recommendations for linux as a tool, but someone else responds expecting they want linux as a toy. then the person will try out linux and will leave because it’s not what they want, not knowing that there is a kind of linux that is what they want

Linux Mint, because I don’t like to tinker with the system, I like good defaults (and Mints has them).