Well, Mandrake is supposedly the most "newbie-friendly" of all the distros--Suse and RedHat are supposed to be pretty good for newbies too. I started out on Mandrake 8.1 and then switched to Slackware 8.1. It really depends on how dirty you want your hands to get with your Linux experience. Slackware allows you to get your hands dirty, but it's also very simple. However, simple doesn't mean easy. If you're curious about different distros, go to
www.distrowatch.com and check them all out. Just click on a distro, and view what it's all about. You'll see lots of distros, so be prepared for some reading. When you've researched enough, you'll have probably found at least 2 that you wouldn't mind trying. Download them, burn them (or buy them to support the Linux movement), and give them a try. If you don't like them, try others until you find one that you like. That's the beauty of Linux--you have freedom to choose what YOU like. You're not force fed stuff that you HAVE to accept and use. If you don't like any of the distros, then at least you gave it a try. I don't, however, think that you won't like ALL the distros. You'll probably find one that you really like and end up obsessing over it.
Good luck!
