Airports in Milan, Italy

There are none if you consider the cost of a flight to a destination first like most people do.
There are differences : Linate is smaller closer to the city handles only inter-European flights. Malpensa is bigger and further away and handles inter-continental flights

Don't think there is much, if any, overseas international flights into Linate. Now flights from France or Germany are from other nations, but they are all Schengen and virtually domestic flights. You could land there if you were connecting through Paris or Amsterdam or Frankfurt or others, but you would clear Schengen Immigration at those airports.

Linate does not have a rail connection into central Milan (yet, tram line is in the works), just bus and taxi. It is a lot closer to central Milan, so a taxi won't break the bank.

Malpensa has frequent rail connections to two different rail stations in Milan, Cadorna close to the Duomo in the center of Milan and Milano Centrale for rail connections to anywhere in Italy. It is a tad expensive at 12 EUR per person and still takes 35 to 55 minutes, so you know its a ways out of town.

No distinction to my mind, as both are easy to transit to the city from. I'd just go with the better flight overall.

Check flights to both airports in your searches (click on "include nearby airports" box in the search engine you use).
Malpensa MXP is the intercontinental airport (Linate's runway is too short for widebody airplanes), however some European airlines have severely limited intra Europe flights to Malpensa (e.g. Alitalia, British Airways), therefore by including LIN in your searches, you will get more options via the various European gateways. LIN is basically Alitalia's moneymaking monopoly, but it has connections to other EU hubs with other EU airlines.

Government rules limits LIN to Italian domestic flights and to European Union hubs and capital cities. Therefore there can't be flights to Zurich (not in the EU). Don't know what will happen to the many flights to Heathrow after Brexit.

Linate is only 15 min by taxi to the city center, so it is convenient even if it has no train service. Malpensa is really far, so you need to take the train because the taxi ride costs 100€.

There are differences : Linate is smaller closer to the city handles
only inter-European flights. Malpensa is bigger and further away and
handles inter-continental flights

And that's a pretty big difference so which one you choose may depend on where you are flying to.

Having happily used Linate once for a flight within Italy, I chose it on another trip because it worked with my preference to connect in Amsterdam instead of Paris CDG (on Delta to Seattle).