Best RAW image processing editor for beginner photographer to start

Sir,
I am doing photography with my Canon 1200d for while and I now I want to shoot in RAW mode because it is said to give you better control over image if you apply good post-processing. I have decided to learn a good RAW image post processing software but I just don't know which one to start. There are many choices but most of the photographers are suggested only paid version, but I I also searched free version , there are few , please mention which one I can use and I don't want to learn new software later. My preference is free software but if there are not many good choices then I will go with paid also. So far I have seen suggestion to use Adobe Lightroom (which is not free) , DxO pro, it is also not free and Aperture (which I can't use because I do not use MAC and it is mac only). So confusion is increased even more with it. I find some free raw editors like RawTherapee and lightzone but I am worried that if give time to learn them and later I find that I should use something else then all my time invested in learning it will be wasted. So I want a good choice which is future proof.

Yes, it is true that RAW image processing gives you more freedom and control over your snaps and allows you to be more creative. Now if you want to learn something which is mainstream then there is nothing better than lightroom 5 but its not free and plus it is targeted on professional photographer those needs to manage lots of photos regularly.

But lightroom is not the best, we can say that it is jack of all trade but master of none. There is not much favourable reviews about DxO apart of its good noise reduction capability. There is also another editor named as Photo Ninja, you will find that all have their pros and cons.

Free variants are good and are pretty capable, the two you mentioned , I have seen them both are pretty good. but have not used them yet so can't comment. I suggest you go and download each, use for few days and decide which you want to use, all of them comes with trial version.