I started dual booting Linux in college, because some of the mathematical software packages were available via X forwarding from a campus Unix server. While there were often problems to troubleshoot, I liked how easy it was to find answers from peers in online communities. Certain coding projects were also easier to get started with on Linux thanks to open source libraries and so on. Eventually I moved completely to Linux for my home use, and I never looked back!
My interests lie more in applications than in OS tinkering, so I tend to lean toward distributions that are easier to use and have lots of support.