the best Linux 2565

Whether the combination of people doing bulk installations from single purchases combines with the number of people who wind up with "coasters" of distros they don't like to form a large or small ratio of people to disks or IP addresses to trolls or dollars to downloads or anything else is immaterial; the OP's question about selecting a relatively popular distro was a reasonable one for a relative newbie, which I suppose is why it gave a troll a fart attack.

As others have pointed out here, a number of distros have reached the critical mbutt of recognized usage where people can expect to get compatible third-party software and find usable answers to their questions. The reason the OP has heard a lot (disproportionately, some would argue) about Red Hat is basically the reason why Red Hat and some of its major derivatives are probably good answers to the OP's question. Ubuntu is new and may be a flash in the pan FAIK (not that I am making a prediction) but Ubuntu is Debian-based, and Debian is long and well established, and Ubuntu's popularity could help increase recognition of Debian's approach to Linux, which could contribute to third-party interest, development, support, etc., which could attract more users, and so on - it's a circular process of self-reinforcement, kind of like the reasoning of trolls but more useful.

I picked Red Hat years ago because of its reputation for combined power and ease of use, and I'm using a Red Hat derivative now (CentOS). But I'm not going to argue that it is inherently better than Debian, or anything else. Checking out a site like distrowatch and possibly trying more than one distro to get a personal impression sound like good suggestions to me; I'd take them if I were just getting started using Linux. And neither need require the augmentation of any market statistic or the production of a single "coaster".