Having played every iteration of D&D, I have to admit I'm a fan of the simpler "Rulings Over Rules" frameworks of OD&D, B/X and 1E/2E. It's going to boil down to how you want to play, and what your players want to play... and, to no small extent, your budget. OSR systems are a good bit less expensive than current gen stuff as they're about furthering the hobby and not about pushing product(s). [url=https://yawningportal.org/why-choose-osr/]Why choose OSR?[/url]

I suppose the answer depends on what kind of person you are. Consider 4e: Eeee Not very convincing is it? A true scream would last longer, but also end abruptly. Let's try 5e Eeeee That was barely different than the first! I must therefore conclude that the best amount of "E" must be ten thousand. Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee- (abrupt ending)

Bottom line: there is no right way to play dnd. Play what’s fun for you. But if you’re interested, 3.5e was very grounded in specific rules that allowed you to flesh out specific elements of the world and your characters. This allowed an incredibly detailed version of worlds and combat but gameplay could be painfully slow, especially for new or indecisive players. 4e was a very unique system that made a lot of changes from 3.5 that many found unpopular but was focused on cinematic and action-paced encounters designed to allow tabletop gaming to compete with computer gaming and MMOs. A lot of the elements of “danger” were removed. Dying took longer. Resurrection was easier. And every class had flashy moves to utilize. But it was a lot of change very fast and not handled as well as it could have been. 5e did a lot to marry those ideals. It gave more detail and allowed the game world to be as dangerous as the group wants it to be, but ultimately still less lethal than 3.5. It took a lot of the flashy cinematic class abilities that were fun from 4e. It’s also the current thing going. So all new source material will be in support of it. As a DM, 3.5 was my jam. It’s still my favorite. But I’m very writing oriented, so I love using fine detail for world and character flavor, and I like combat to be deadly. Play what you like though. The first rule is fun. So if your group is playing 4e and enjoying it, screw everyone else.

Okay, as someone who now owns 13 of the 5e books, 5 of which are the limited edition covers, I highly recommend 5e, it’s combat is way more balanced out than 4e, and it’s not too complicated. It only has 13 classes, but each class has a crap ton of subclasses, the newest class artificer currently has 4, but the 12 base classes have at the lowest around 8 and the highest around 18. So there’s still a whole lot of customization to choose from. And with 5e being the current version and very active, there’s a lot of new content coming out for it, including magic the gathering cross over books, and remakes of the old settings, we’ve recently gotten eberron a year ago, and there’s gonna be 3 old settings getting their own new books next year

It's the main system my group has used for years. We branch out and play other games from time to time, Stars Without Number, the Star Wars RPG, Vampire the Masquerade, Pathfinder, but always come back to 5th. I've not played 4th edition but I've heard...many bad things about it... it seems to be the least liked. Here's a [url=https://www.dndbeyond.com/essentials]website[/url] I use for stuffs on 5e. It has a lot of the basics for free

I own the book for 5E, but have only gotten to play one game. I’ve never played a game from a previous edition. Sorry I can’t help. :( [spoiler]Sorry, all out of salt.[/spoiler]

To my knowledge, yes, 5e works very different as compared to earlier versions of D&D. I don’t know the specifics, but 5e was created with the sole intent of making the game as easy to pick up and learn as possible.

I’ve heard... many things about 4e, primarily that it’s not great. [spoiler] First video I found and watched when searching! https://youtu.be/cpmUxfS4LF8 [/spoiler]

5e makes being a Bard an actual effective option, so yes.