graemeho

After trying a few of the Linux "distros" (distributions) Mandrake, SuSE, RedHat, I can personally recommend Ubuntu, particularly for hardware compatibility. It handled the WiFi on my IBM laptop from first installation, after I spent many frustrating hours downloading trials recommended for the other distros.

Clean interface, and some "interesting" calendar shots available for wallpaper from the home site - fresh one each month.

Ubunbtu is good - I've been dual-booting with WinXP on an IBM notebook for a few months without any problems. I previously used Mandrake (9.1) but that didn't have a driver for my WiFi - Ubuntu handles this and the rest of the hardware without any problems.

Still uses Gnome (same as Mandrake) but with a much plainer interface, and seems to run faster than Mandrake. Has Firefox as the default browser, so you shouldn't have too many display problems.

I hear they've just released a KDE version (Kubuntu!) but some bugs have been reported.

I would definitely recommend Ubuntu for linux newbies, even if it doesn't have the sometimes overwhelming range of applications as standard that most others including Mandrake choose to ship. There are 1000's of additional app's available for download via the Aptitude module that is the standard method of keeping the system updated.