Personally i like independent or house, Independent for obvious reasons let the people lead the people, house because of his extensive pre-planning, intellect and that brief line where he talks about colonizing space or some shit, that'd be dope, but i'm up to hear why NCR or (unlikely they'd actually be) Legion is better

Usually go for Independent, not because I hate house but because I think it's the overall best choice for the Mojave.

Ncr is corrupt at their core. They care little to nothing for their people and are more focused on getting as much land and territory as they can, not caring who they run over and destroy in the process. They have some good people but they are few and far in between.

The Legion has some good ideas, like protecting their territory, but at the end of the day they are still an army of slavers. They have been built to be an army that must fight. Without an enemy The Legion would ultimately destroy themselves. The same if Ceaser died. The legion has no clear line of succession as they follow Ceaser not his ideals.

House is a good choice but is still corrupt and arrogant. He sees himself as the only thing that can save the world and puts more stock in machines than man. House also focuses more on machines leaving him with only a small standing army. He would be forced to conscript or enslave people to bolster his numbers. He can't reach across the entire state with limited coverage.

Plus he wants to kill the brotherhood and that would make Veronica cry so.....

My current playthrough is independent, purely because of how I imagine the character I'm playing as. But my personal opinion is NCR. They aren't perfect, they're corrupt as hell, but they're the best option the wasteland has at surviving.

House is an egotistical sociopath that will see the entire world rot away into a burning carcass just to keep some pretty lights on in Vegas. Independent is tied to a very suggestible robot that literally can't say no...To anyone. And the legion is...Well...The legion.

NCR might not be ideal, but they're a semi-capable governing body that's at least rebuilding and expanding, and for now is the best option the mojave has.

I would place my bets on the House Ending....
[puts up kevlar shield] hear me out

While it is mostly speculation the small deed he did , he conviced a bunch of crazy tribe folks to settle down and play dress up for his vision of Vegas for a man who controls tvs on wheels that pretty damn impressive in my book and only opens up to what other possibilities House can do
There is no greater good or evil in FNV while I do dislike the Legion I cant ignore the results
while I do like the NCR its mostly due to knowing its history [Vault Dweller/Chosen one/Tandi]
Everything and anything can go wrong althoe that might go a bit into fan fiction on my part
Knowledge is power , yes if House dies so much for that parade so can pretty much everyone else
the Legion had its days numbered , the NCR somewhat in a sense is repeating history if what I know of the Divide is cannon , it aint perfect it aint the best House just has the most potential in my opinion

if what ulysses said is true and the tunnelers really invade the mojave it makes no difference what end you choose, but i would go whit house.

Legion will end up destroying itself eventualy.

Ncr is gaining too much territory and will eventually be unable to defend everyone, and people will eventually start to rebel.

yes man inst all this bad, but people need someone that know how to say no in charge, freedom inst a good thing for all the people.

House inst perfect as well, but he is doing good so far and there is no better choice.

I have done every ending at least once, but most of the time I end up choosing Yes Man ending. In personal and roleplaying aspect that is the one I agree the most with. The House, the Legion and the NCR are just power hungry entities which has up and downs, but in the end all they want is power and an ability to control people for their own ends. Though, I guess the NCR ending might be the most "safest" one for humanity if you compare it to real world stuff. Nothing is perfect.

My personal from best to worse would be Yes Man > The Legion > The House > The NCR.

That is gameplay-wise which are the most enjoyable. Sometimes I like to play differently and pick The Legion's side. I never liked the NCR though, in classic Fallouts either.

Independence.
By my point of view - Courier as a ruler.
It's already all has spoken about other factions.
Legion - slavers, cannot advance beyond primitive dictatorship and will collapse after Caesar dies.
House - has no idea about outside world, care only for what he wants. At end - empty New Vegas - only Securitrons. And probably global war/resistance against him.
NCR - corrupt, inefficient. They cannot even protect a supply line from Mojave Outpost to New Vegas.At end - revolts and stagnation. Or new dictatorship.

Courier - know all about wasteland, saw how people suffer and fight to survive. Idolized or feared by all major/minor factions and towns. War hero - drive Legion back, protect/conquer The Dam.
Have access/control to almost unlimited resource and technology - Big MT/Sierra Madre.
He can even use House survival equipment if we go that way.
Since only person, that can enter Lucky, he is the only one controlling Yes Man. With help of brains, he can even reprogram Yes Man, to answer only to him.
With his reputation - tons of ppl will came if he want to raise an army. Not to mention Legion slaves. He can free them and here we go - he has farmers, workers, even troops.
Overall - Courier is only option for peace and prosperity.
Some may say - NCR will go to war against him, as it was said in vanilla end. Well, not a chance.
As first reason - ppl in NCR still think about him as a Hero. No matter, that he drew NCR authority/army out of Mojave.
2. Politicians - can be bribed, can be persuaded.They will prefer to trade, not to go to war.
3. Cost of lives and resource. NCR do not have both. To send an army against war robots......and for what?!
At end - NCR will ally with free Mojave.Legion lands will be conquered and new unified country will appear to rebuild the world.

see i agree with d_ahat i think at the end of the day the independence ending is entirely dependent on your own courier which is how it would be simultaneously the best and the worst ending, on one hand you have a experienced adventurer who knows the ins and outs of the wasteland it's people and it's factions with knowledge and connections like that they could either be a selfless leader with abundant allies and resources to build a better new vegas or on the other hand an all conquering warlord with all sorts of resources to stay in power from a securitron army to Big MT's tech, to the large wealth obtained at the Sierra Madre , or even access to [spoiler not that it matters] nukes to obliterate the opposing factions at the end of lonesome road

independent
while post battle for the dam would be and almost certainly will be chaos and hectic
i fully believe people of the Mojave should be able to govern themselves
and if need be send out scouts to find who ever would be willing and able to fill the shoes of the now defunct desert rangers
or have each settlement have their own set up their own force to defend themselves
as for resources outside h strip that isn't my characters problem and if and when the time comes
at least as far as m head cannon goes my charter would use the knowledge gathered at the big mt to bolster and grow the education in the waste some how
use the gold from the madre to make deals with the more shrewd brahmin barrons of the ncr to make sure the strip doesnt go with out food in the long run
and use Zion as my own personal resort to get away from the strip every so often realistically i feel outer vegas is and never was my responsibility
ill help where i can but i wont and refuse to force my rules on to the people of outer vegas
as for freeside ill open it up and help the king to keep it within his own rules minus a few quirks sorry i know this was long as hell

NCR ending no question. It may not feel as good as independent but for long term stability or some semblance of law and order then the proper choice is NCR. You, the courier, as head of an independent New Vegas are a single point of failure (kind of like Caeser for the Legion but worse since the Legion will take years or decades to fall apart). This is Vegas and your luck will likely run out before you die of old age. If/when that happens, all of the Mojave is instantly up for grabs.

I can't understand why some people prefer Legion over other factions : they are a bunch of misogynist slavers, torturers and incels. It's obvious they are the baddies.

House is the most intelligent being in the Nevada, with good ideas and a lot of means, but he is a dictator, the incarnation of aristocraty, motivated by gold/caps and he likes to suppress any opposition.

NCR seems good. It's corrupted, but can be reformed. I liked Tandi in Fallout 1 & 2. Aaron Kimball is clearly not the best president, and Lee Oliver shouldn't be general, luckily, their reign (it is a reign) isn't eternal, and I hope their successors will be better. NCR protect its people, even ghouls and mutants, as long as they aren't a threat.

Independant could be, in my opinion, the best ending, but I fear it wouldn't last long : remnants from the Legion would attack New Vegas, raiders as well, and NCR would still want to expand.

Just a ...how to say, military analyse of independent New Vegas:

Tons of Heavily armed Securitrons. + option to produce more -OWB.
Endless amount of Cyberdogs - OWB.
Heavily Trained and Equipped BOS - if u ally with them, not destroy. Can be used to train new troops also.
Boomers Artillery and Air force.
Tons of weapons, money and equipment + enough ppl to be recruited and trained as military force.
More then enough money for bribes(NCR politicians) and to hire mercenaries. Even from NCR!
There is only 2 routes to New Vegas:
Mojave Outpost and The Dam- both places can be easy transform to a invincible fortresses with all that resource.
River - Legion can send only small bands - can be easily prevent with enough patrols. Even with Cyberdogs patrols.
Only ....problem to independent New Vegas is - how Courier will choose to rule.
BTW, u can just disconnect Mr. House and then u can use his knowledge.

The house ending is the best in my eyes. Mr. House seems to care A lot about new vegas, Plus, House would be able to field larger security operations around the Mojave (to kill ants, death claws and raiders) with no or minimal human causalities Due to the additional resources that hover dam will provide to his robot army. Also, his background in business and technology will help build an economically stable and technologically advanced Mojave

Glad to see so many people coming to a similar conclusion, maybe one day we'll see an expansive mod that let's us live out these post main story dreams

My first choice would be an independent New Vegas. Why? It's because the factions trying for power are all in it for their own interest, and are not "By the people, for the people." The NCR are a republic and not a democracy. The Legion are an army of organized slavers, and Mr. House wants to become the next big dictator.

My second choice would be the NCR. I would rather them be a democracy, but a republic is still American. They have some things I question, but the things I do are very few and far between. It's a faction that I'd be willing to work with, and, at times, tolerate.

These are just my opinions of course.

I personally tend to go with Mr House, although I admit that at times I am too lazy to go through the work of killing his securitrons in the Lucky 38 lol. My first choice is Mr House in general, followed closely by the NCR or the non-house Independent Vegas. I mean, my Courier tends to not be the best at politics lol. That being said, ruling New Vegas with the dividends of the DLCs should avoid a scenario like that of the DUST backstory altogether... right?

TL:DR: Just go with House or Independent.

If we go by the ending slides (and it doesn't sound like most people do) then they're all sort of bittersweet at best, no perfect world. Which is probably about right, Fallout isn't about perfect worlds.
The ending slides also don't really take into our courier's own inner thoughts (of course.) One courier I played, I think would have made an excellent ruler. But another -- nah, far too stupid and irresponsible to actually manage anything. Outside of the Vegas area, the Mojave wasn't really a civilization. Mostly just burned down towns and a few little outposts.
I also don't trust Yes Man, at all. I have a feeling if we'd seen a sequel, we'd have found out more. Independent is really a Yes Man victory in disguise, but... I don't think I can prove it.

The House Always Wins no matter how arrogant and how vile he may seem at times. I used to go independent but I realized it isn't as good as it sounds. If the Mojave is left to chaos, It may just stay that way. NCR are corrupt...Legion has no chance either. I just mod it so that House accepts the BOS being alive.

The corruption of the NCR isn't great, but... it's sort of normal for politicians in a large, wealthy modern democracy. If they win the wars in the Mojave, they might get the boost they need to consolidate, and actually offer the people something akin to a safe, modern-ish civilization. Probably a lot like the pre-war world of the 20th century. Sure, their senate will have special interests and bickering, but... the people have a chance at being actually comfortable. So... it all depends on whether or not you like freedom at the cost of living in violence-infested crumbling ruins, or if you value some degree of pre-war safety and comfort (which only the NCR is definitely trying to achieve.)

The NCR can make... gasp -- NEW BUILDINGS! That aren't covered in trash and rubble. Almost no one in the Mojave actually sweeps trash and makes new houses. The important NCR buildings had forcefields for doors, for goodness sakes. Their little pixelated police officers were dressed like modern pre-war officers rather than salvaged sports gear or whatever. If the NCR someday trades with or captures the Shi, their technology will reach new heights of amazing.
Which is why I _really_ wish we'd been allowed to see a Legion city and the NCR's Shady Sands. I think it would have made the decision much, much different for some people. Judging purely by the legion's soldiers, I'd never, ever want those people policing the land. Never. I'd never have guessed that they were anything other than cosplaying raiders with a tempory intelligent leader, if it wasn't for things like Cass's description of legion territory. Her strory seemed to contradict everything else I'd seen of the legion. Yoy mean they let an alcoholic heavily armed woman run a caravan through their territory without raping and enslaving her? Wow. I wish we'd seen that city.
People who didn't see fallout 2 don't know how advanced the NCR really is, at the heart of their territory. The mojave was just their primitive frontier world with the barest of footholds.

@Sirdanest
I do remember and play all Fallouts. Problem with FNV is this:
Story and entire world, all actions of NCR is made like they care only for what they can get from Mojave, not what they can do for it. It's like they just occupy lands and do not care about them. That's the reason a lot of ppl not to see them as solution. For example - they are present in Strip, since soldiers resting there, but not on Freeside. They just do not care about. Same happens all over the world. Hell they do not even clear their supply road. (Always wonder for so many wrecks in and on road of Mojave Outpost?!?!) All actions are made to keep The Dam and nothing else. Nothing ever is said, about helping ppl.
Entire story is made like that. The Dam, The Strip, not even New Vegas, just The Strip. Nothing else is made important both for Mr. House and NCR.
If story allow us to see how they care about ppl, how they plan to help them, how they will pacify and rebuild - yes then they will be on first place.