Debian, Fedora and other similar distributions are probably not the best choice for someone just testing the waters. Linspire, Mandriva, SUSE, and Ubuntu are generally on my "newbie to Linux" suggestion list.
Regarding the quality of Linspire, remember it is based on Debian Linux, so it is basically a good, solid distribution. It is just refined to make it easy to use by the average person--most specifically someone trying to transition away from Windows.
As I have posted elsewhere, the main complaints people have against Linspire are its defaulting to root login and the existence of the CNR software installation warehouse. These can be overcome by:
1. Adding user accounts. This is an option when installing Linspire and is something that should be a cakewalk to 99% of the people visiting this forum--even those new to Linux.
2. Don't use the warehouse and operate it like a Debian distribution.
--or--
Spend $20 per year for CNR. It makes package and software installation so much easier for those used to Windows, removes dependency problems, allows you to legally purchase proprietary software (like DVD players), and more. To me, $20 a year is nothing to spend on a computer or software, and I bet most everyone here spent twice that amount on their last tank of gas.
Anyway, it is a good distro, the multimedia apps are not "crippled" (as they are in SUSE to avoid legal issues), and everything runs pretty much as it should out of the box and does not require any special expertise to run.
