I wrote a paper that I have cut and pasted here, as it's up on a site that has a few articles that could be considered against forum rules. I know this will help some users, so I figure I should share it here as well.
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//Starting Out With a Linux Distro
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//by Rightcoast
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//rightcoast@gmail.com
//Under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA
//http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/
I have written this as a short helpful guide for people who want to use a Linux distro, but aren't sure which one to choose. It is neither all encompassing, or completely unbiased. I have taken pains to show a few distros strengths and weaknesses, not just my recommended newb distro. this way, you can choose, and no one shouts "Rightcoast is a walking Debian billboard".
I think there are probably a dozen distros I can think of that would work well for a new user. I am going to stick with the few I think would best serve newbs though. What distro you want, even with all the advice in the world, comes down to what you need it for, and personal taste. I have ranked these in order from lowest to highest, using my judgement and weighing things like ease of use vs. power vs. long term benefits like general *nix education.
5. Mandriva: Formerly known as Mandrake, this is one of the first distros that stressed ease of use. It is one of the top two or three in ease of use. That's also it's biggest drawback. You can't learn anything when you are clicking a button to administer every aspect of the machine. Believe it or not, when you get used to a couple commands, it is faster than a lot of GUI tools anyway. It's package management tool is urpmi. It uses rpm's, being based on Red-Hat and all.
New users will find it easiest to configure urpmi with easy urpmi:
http://easyurpmi.zarb.org/
Mandriva homepage
http://www.mandriva.com/en/
Mandriva forums
http://mandrivausers.org/
Mandriva community wiki
http://wiki.mandriva.com/en/
Main Wiki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandriva_Linux
4. Debian: It has a graphical installer that is easy to use now, and apt-get, it's package manager. While ease of package management is this distro's primary strength IMO, it also makes an excellent server OS as well. Debian is not entirely suited to the new user, so Ubuntu gets the #1 spot.
The Debian homepage
http://www.debian.org/
Offical Documentation:
http://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual
http://www.debian.org/doc/
This is a site with extensive Debian guides, install walkthroughs, and how-to's. You can use this page alone and get up and running with any type of machine you want, from plain regular desktop, to networked fileserver or webserver.
http://www.aboutdebian.com/
A more technical, but essential page for some more
intermediate/advanced Debian topics:
http://qref.sourceforge.net/
News for Debian smile.gif
http://www.debian-news.net/
Wiki page
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debian
3. Slackware: A very powerful Linux distro. Many experienced users will even call it the *most* powerful. Combine that with the fact a new user can actually pull off an install, unlike other very powerful distros like Gentoo and Linux From Scratch (which isn't really a distro at all, just some docs, but that's another discussion), and you see the main reasons Slackware gets a number three on my list. I would be remiss without noting it's package management will be tricky for someone completely new to Linux.
It will require you read documentation, and have previous computer experience. At least be able to read and understand technical documentation and you will be fine.
http://www.slackware.com/
3b. Salix OS: Salix is a linux distribution based on Slackware that is simple, fast and easy to use. Salix is also fully backwards compatible with Slackware, so Slackware users can benefit from Salix repositories, which they can use as an "extra" quality source of software for their favorite distribution. Like a bonsai, Salix is small, light & the product of infinite care. Very simple installation with the power and stability of Slackware.
http://www.salixos.org/wiki/index.php/Home
2. Knoppix: Awesome hardware detection. What this means for you is that in almost every case, you put the disk in, and everything runs. Ubuntu has worked better for some Wi-Fi equipment for me in the past, but knoppix is at least it's equal in hardware detection anyway. It's good, it's powerful, and if it weren't for Ubuntu, it's waht you would want. smile.gif
http://www.knoppix.net/
http://www.knoppix.net/forum
1. Ubuntu: It is as powerful as any other distro, it's fast and it's clean. It is also nearly idiot proof (not saying anything bad at all, it's just made to be idiot proof). Easy hardware detection and configuration (#1 on any newbs list), and a top notch support community. This is the ultimate balanced distro.
http://ubuntulinux.org/
http://ubuntuforums.org/
And... for a new user, this guide is a very easy to navigate guide to using your new ubuntu system. All you old pros, if you haven't seen this, read it. Hopefully learn from it, and carry it's greatness over your distro's docs. This is what gives it the one up on any distro for a new user. Chua Wen Kiat is an open source hero...this guide is assisting the transfer to a Linux OS for many, many, many, many^ users. Kudos!
http://ubuntuguide.org/
On a final note, I think that Ubuntu is the only distro that will mail you free CD's via USPS. This makes Ubuntu Linux free-as-in-beer for dial up users as well. My buddy droops runs the Free Linux CD Project over at his site. If you have dial-up and want a different distro, this may be the way to go. Googling "Infonomicon Free Linux CD Project" will get you to the page.
Of course, when at all possible try to test a distro out with a LiveCD version. You can run these directly from the CD drive and not have to install a single thing on your hard drive. This means you can try different Linux versions at no risk to your computer.
2. Linux Mint: Linux Mint 11 “Katya” .One click install for multimedia codecs and extra applications The Software Manager UI improvements New splash screen Fonts category More accurate package information More application icons by default More accurate search by default. Very stable and excellent hardware recognition.
http://www.linuxmint.com/
Here's a complete comparison of distros you can look at as well.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari..._distributions
Bring your questions on linux over to the guys and girls at Linux Questions. This should be in every new users bookmarks. You can get help with pretty much anything there. Just find your distro's form, and ask away!
http://www.linuxquestions.org