try slack

Telling someone who has never used Linux before to try Slackware is like giving some who has never driven a car before, all the parts to a Ferrari and telling him "Once you get it together, you'll love it".
I love Slackware(will never use anything else), but it's not exactly newbie friendly.

the install and the basics are just as simple as any other distro

True, once your familiar with the basics

Caution: Dell computers come with winmodems, non-standard mother boards and power supplies, by the way. Generic replacements of mobo/power supply will damage the original mobo/power supply or not fit the case, so that only Dell parts will work as replacements.

They stuck their toe into Linux support and got slapped pretty hard with threats by Microsoft, I believe.

It seems to me as if Dell is now adopting the Microsoft business model.

I suggest trying a "Live CD" such as Knoppix to get an idea of how your hardware is supported.

# Cheap CDs
Discount Linux CDs
Linux Central
Cheapbytes
TuxCDs
ComputerHelperGuy