With a server in mind I'd go OpenSuse Leap.
this post was submitted on 24 Jun 2023
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@bzImage For desktops/laptops my goto is https://ubuntu-mate.org/. For servers, I still use Rocky 9, a RHEL based distro, but I've been happy with Ubuntu servers as well. The ubiquity of Ubuntu just makes it easy to search for solutions to anything you encounter.
If you are willing to abandon Linux, I would suggest FreeBSD for general purpose servers.
It is a full operating system, which starts you off with a CLI, that is easy to configure. There is a full handbook that describes the full process, and it is on their website. FreeBSD is an operating system, rather than a distribution of cobbled together packages. Due to this, operating system binaries, and package binaries, are separated. This makes configuration on the OS level consistent.
A lot of Linux programs come from the BSD family. FreeBSD also has its own hypervisor, named Bhyve. FreeBSD has its own version of Docker as well, they are called jails. It might take some time to learn, but I promise it will be worth the time.
If you want easy way - Ubuntu. All packages exist, all developers support. But snap is pain.
If you need mainline packages - Arch. But be care with bugs. Use LTS kernel or you can broke filesystem on one day for example.
If you want forgot about dependencies - NixOS. But Nix not classic packet manager and you can feel pain on start.
In reality, a lot depends on the environment in which your code will work. If it's Java, then in principle it doesn't matter, but if it's C/C++, it's better to develop in an environment as close to production as possible.
I'm a long time Opensuse user ~~but that is also somewhat RedHat based I think~~ . Highly recommend it, though. Have been using it on a server since 2014 and just kept updating through all the opensuse versions since then without problems. Exceptionally stable.
Also use it on my work laptop and I'm also with that very satisfied regarding stability and usability.
Edit: it's based on Slackware and not redhat.
This question is just going to draw a lot of "hey what's your favourite distro" responses.
But if you want something EL-like that isn't RHEL, consider the bastard child of Conectiva and Mandrake, long ejected from the RedHat family but still very similar -- PCLinuxOS. It has the superior signed packaging format, and it has much of the same workflow. Its packer compatibility suffers greatly from its mageia times - I think - so they're still a bit ghetto about anything at scale, but that's almost the only thing they don't have nailed-down. Their massive compatibility window delivers on everything AppStream claims but cannot.
For minimal stuff, consider AlpineLinux, which also is free of Systemd and still manages to run really well for reasons Lennart's fans simply can't understand.
On my Desktop, I switched to Manjaro (Arch-based) from Mint a few years ago. Works like a charm and I like the rolling release model. On servers, Ubuntu, Debian or SUSE might be a good choice.
Every single vm in my home lab is Debian, from the minimal installer, running on proxmox which is Debian based. Every new install is ~7 minutes and has been so stable that my uptimes are only under 100% because of yearly power outages longer than my UPS can handle. Average uptime is ~half a year on each box.
There are several options. Alma/Rocky, Fedora, Debian, BSD, just to name a few.