I know it might be a stupid question, but if you are a new user and want something "pretty" on your desktop, like Windows 7 or MacOS - not necessarily looking the same, but just as good and just a easy to use?

Pretty? Probably KDE -- has an equivalent "start" button (called Kickoff Application Launcher) that gets you to all the applications. You can fiddle as much as you want to with the display, all that kind of thing. KDE defaults with Slackware, don't know about others except Ubuntu that defaults to GNOME.

Hope this helps some.

It's very much down to what you consider "pretty". There are a number of window managers and desktop environments which are all incredibly configurable. All distros can use all environments/managers and they can be as good or bad looking as you want them to be. Take a look at kde-look.org, gnome-look.org and the other "x"-look.org sites to see hwat can be done.

This is independent of distrobution, but compiz if the ducks guts as far as pretty goes IMHO.
Not only is it pretty, but a lot of the keyboard shortcuts, and plugins come in handy.

There are plenty of youtube vids showing off the effects and what not.

It can be installed and run on most distro's and at lease, GNOME, KDE, XFCE.

"pretty" is pretty subjective. Everyone will tell you something different.

Why not look at some screenshots & decide for yourself.
http://www.thecodingstudio.com/opens...hots/index.php

If that doesn't work for you. There's always youtube.

Mine... and as it's a matter of personal taste, you can't argue with that.

If prettiness is high on your priority list for OSs, then maybe Linux is not the best choice for you. Since prettiness is completely subjective, no one can give the right answer. An OS and the computers they run on are not art. They can be good tools for creating art, but that is a different question. Prettiness should neither be confused with ease of learning or potential to be powerful (and these two are very often in conflict with each other). If your benchmark for ease of use is Windows 7, then any Linux should pass muster.
--- rod.

It may not look like Windows 7 (which I've never seen) but this is pretty enough for me!
http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/7168/desktopoq.png

I like KDE, I really do, but I'd forgotten until recently how hopeless the default/out of the box KDE appearance was. So, I'm voting for 'KDE, but you really have to tweak it to get there'.

As my second choice, Enlightenment; well, better described as 'dramatic' than 'pretty', but I'm still pretty much taken with it.

pretty? I dont know.. but fat is
- gnome
- kde
So, for me is pretty.. NOT fat.. like
archbang
tinycorelinux
antix
see www.distrowatch.com
I would try a distro with fluxbox (maximum)

I must say that I've not seen a windows desktop that has been prettier than a lot of the desktop images that I've seen in post your screenshot here at LQ, now I have to find it but will pst it in a few minutes.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...sktops-883752/
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...creenshots-94/

Seeing as you're a brand new, instead of answering your question i'm going to attempt to expand your knowledge on the Gnu/Linux desktop experience. Firstly some people will call the operating system 'Gnu/Linux' instead of just 'Linux'. This is for reasons i'm not going to get into at the moment, but is argumentative to an extent. I am making this clear because i am one of these people, and so you will know what the hell i'm talking about when i say 'Gnu/Linux'.
If you've never used an OPEN operating system like a Gnu/Linux distributions then, the desktop experience is like nothing before. In Windows, or Mac Os X, you are limited to one desktop environment and that's the one that comes with the operating system. Gnu/Linux is very different from that. Us Gnu/Linux Users have a lot more freedom. We have the choice of choosing amongst many different desktop environments, so we may use our computers the way we want to, instead of the way a company thinks we should. The two big desktop environments in Gnu/Linux are Gnome, and Kde. There are others too which are described as light weight desktop environments, such as xfce and lxde. After that there are Window manager such as fluxbox, and window maker.
I suggest you use Gnome, or Kde, they are the biggest in default features, and files, but also the most popular (i'm pretty sure).Gnome is in an awkward place at the moment, the project is currently going through a transition from version 2.x to 3.x, which has involved a complete rewrite and things are drastically different, so that's just a little thing to keep in mind. I personally think gnome 3.x is probably the most beautiful desktop environment but lacks to many customization features i enjoy, and i don't find it the best user experience either. I am a kde user, it is very nice, with many many features, but some people think that it's amount of options is to many and over whelming; but this is up to you to decide. I've got away from the original point i was trying to make. In Gnu/Linux, you have choice, so don't think that in the Gnu/Linux distribution you select, you are limited to the desktop environment you are given by default. You may install any you wish, and have several on one Gnu/Linux distribution, which you may select to use at login. Give as many of them as you can a go and you will find the one you like best.

KDE probably has the most eye candy out-of-the-box. The Oxygen theme is quite nice. I have a Win 7 box and cannot agree that Linux cannot be made as eye-pleasing as Windows.

OpenSuse also includes KDE.

I prefer my own Fluxbox with pseudo-transparency and my rotating wallpaper library myself, but Fluxbox out of box is extremely plain.

You can see a lot of user posted screenshots of desktops here and get a sense of what can be done with Linux.

I just knew some killjoy would come in with the whole "computers are tools not toys" remark…

In all seriousness, though, many posters here have already made the main point: "pretty" is a subjective term. What's "pretty" to one person might not be "pretty" to you. One person might like a no-nonsense barebones Openbox environment, whereas another person might want all the Compiz bling and animations and such.

As for me, I'm the latter…and now I feel ashamed of that.