For me it’s PeppermintOS.
I started my Linux adventure a few years ago, and haven’t owned a Windows PC since.
I currently use Arch on my main rig, and I wanted to install Linux on two old laptops that I found laying around in my house
I then remembered the first distro I ever used, which is PeppermintOS, and I was amazed at the latest updates they released.
They even have a mini ISO now to do a net-install with no bloat, with a Debian or Devuan base.
Sadly, I believe the founder passed away a few years ago, which is why I was really happy to see the continuation of this amazing project.
PCLinuxOS is the bastard child of mageia, itself the child of mandriva, of mandrake and conectiva, the last a very, very excellent RH derivative from way back but loved by its Brazilian parents and truly groundbreaking. Live upgrades between major distro versions!
It’s an RPM distro - thus massive validity checks all the way down - with highly versatile app versioning and ranges, and no fucking systemd.
It just has a terrible installer and no templates or boxes for vagrant / etc.