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Beginner:
~~Assuming you have experience with windows, my vote for best beginner linux is the quaintly named: [Puppy Linux](puppylinux.com).~~
It is a LiveCD distro. You just stick it on a CD or thumb drive, and boot up the machine. (Assuming your PC can boot from cd and usb drives - almost all can). It runs in RAM and leaves your current system intact. You start in a wondows-y type desktop with your drives shown as desktop icons (shortcuts), and a bunch of standard user programs (browser, media player, file manager, email, 'lite' office type software etc) installed. Remove the thumb drive, reboot and you're back in windows.
Once you get some familiarity with linux, the next step is venturing into installing linux on your hard drive (not running from a bootable thumb/cd). Most of the well known distros ([ubuntu](https://ubuntu.com/), [debian](https://www.debian.org/), [fedora](https://getfedora.org/)) would fit this space. Most linux users would be in this category. Protip: head to [DistroWatch](https://distrowatch.com/search.php) and search for different options (eg: 'Distribution category': 'Live Medium' to find other LiveCD (bootable) distros).
~~The above linux flavours generally install from a GUI and provide a bunch of standard user programs that you can keep, remove or swap with others as you prefer.~~
There are more esoteric distros that allow you to choose all the software you install from scratch and generally install from the command line. While dsr is correct in saying there are no 'advanced linuxes', there are linuxes where it helps if you are an 'advanced user'. These include [arch linux](https://archlinux.org/), [slackware](http://www.slackware.com/) and [linux from scratch](https://www.linuxfromscratch.org/). By the time you have gotten to the stage of wanting this sort of distro you will have enough knowledge to decide for yourself which suits you best.

Beginner:
Assuming you have experience with Windows, my vote for best beginner Linux is the quaintly named [Puppy Linux][puppy].
It is a LiveCD distro. You just stick it on a CD or thumb drive, and boot up the machine. (Assuming your PC can boot from CD and USB drives—almost all can.) It runs in RAM and leaves your current system intact. You start in a Windows-y type desktop with your drives shown as desktop icons (shortcuts), and a bunch of standard user programs installed (browser, media player, file manager, email, 'lite' office type software, etc.). Remove the thumb drive, reboot, and you're back in Windows.
Once you get some familiarity with Linux, the next step is venturing into installing Linux on your hard drive (not running from a bootable thumb/CD). Most of the well known distros ([Ubuntu][], [Debian][], [Fedora][]) would fit this space. Most Linux users would be in this category. Protip: head to [DistroWatch][] and search for different options (eg: 'Distribution category': 'Live Medium' to find other LiveCD (bootable) distros).
The above Linux flavours generally install from a GUI and provide a bunch of standard user programs that you can keep, remove or swap with others as you prefer.
There are more esoteric distros that allow you to choose all the software you install from scratch and generally install from the command line. While dsr is correct in saying there are no 'advanced Linuxes', there are Linuxes where it helps if you are an 'advanced user'. These include [Arch Linux][arch], [Slackware][] and [Linux from Scratch][lfs]. By the time you have gotten to the stage of wanting this sort of distro, you will have enough knowledge to decide for yourself which suits you best.
[puppy]: https://puppylinux.com
[ubuntu]: https://ubuntu.com
[debian]: https://www.debian.org
[fedora]: https://getfedora.org
[arch]: https://archlinux.org
[slackware]: http://www.slackware.com
[lfs]: https://www.linuxfromscratch.org
[distrowatch]: https://distrowatch.com/search.php

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