Well, like everyone else, I'm going to suggest the OS that I myself use, which is Debian. It's free, and probably the most complete OS around. It comes with Gnome or KDE (I prefer Gnome, which is its default). It has everything you need for programming.

The initial set up of it is a little tricky, however. But, there is a helper CD known as GenieOS. GenieOS makes it easier for newbies to set up Debian with all the plug-ins already configured. Here are screenshots of GenieOS: GenieOS screenshots.

The GenieOS homepage is http://genieos.toluenterprises.com/Home.html

The newest version, that being 0.5, is only available from the first download site listed, that being http://www.piorek.net/pub/LINUX_DISTROS/GenieOS/.
This will install Debian 3.1 (aka Sarge) with all the plug-ins nicely set up. Debian's homepage is http://www.debian.org.

Anyway, good luck with whatever distro you choose. I've used SuSE, Mepis, Mandrake, and Debian. They're all great. So whatever you choose, I'm sure you'll be impressed.

Lupin the 3rd

Is the java version up to date on SMepis 3.4.3? Also do you have any good links for installing Adobe Acro 7 on S Mepis. Based on this thread I just loaded it will give it a spin tommorrow. Still Newbie, Tried SuSE 10.0 KDE; like it, Tried Fedora 5.0 Gnome; didn't like very much multiple issues with mplayer and crashes; like KDE Apps. I don't know codes well, just follow what you guys write! So any Acrobat information would be helpful. Thanks

SimplyMepis or PCLinuxOS

For someone completely new, a live DVD/CD such as Knoppix is often a good place to start. It allows you to understand a little more before you commit to hard drive changes.

Loaded simply mepis 3.4.3, adobe was easy to add, no wma (can't get kplayer to work), not that simple or am I missing something?

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=335549

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=247141

use synaptic to search for and install the WMA plugin for XMMS (XMMS-WMA).

Also install mplayer and all the recommended additional packages

Use synaptic to see if there are any wma plugins for xine

install the mplayerplug-in for Mozilla

Hope this helps. If all else fails, this stuff works out of the box for PCLinuxOS...it seems to handle all the desired formats by default.

may not go for knoppix but otherwise i totally agree....
a live dvd gives the user a chance to try it and they dont have to do anything but play...
ubuntu is a bit different in the install, for some and they may find it scarey but it does do a good job...
mandriva also has a nice installer but can be trickey when played with...
Fedora core has that lovely red hat installer and again can give trouble when settings are play with...
suse using yast install is fairly straight forward but again a bit of knowledge there goes a long way...
i cant comment on slackware as the last distro of that i installed was 2.3 and i havent put those discs in a pc for years...
but i have found there have been some exceptional changes in the last few years and as such i think a live disc is a good start...
after that its horses for courses..if someone likes one distro over another then good but they all have there weakness's...and as linux goes, you can make what you want of the whole thing...
they all can do the same with enough tweeking...

I asked myself the same question some years ago and I answered with another question: what do I really want to get from my Linux knowledge? Since I wanted to deeply know this great world (and programming surely involves it, since you must know how your system works), I thought I should start with the cleanest and less intrusive one, that also leaved a great part of the administration tasks to my skills. Slackware was my choice, but I spent some time reading alot about it and GNU/Linux & UNIX in general before installing it.
If you haven't got such time (Slack can be really tricky...), I would suggest Debian (I use it now), that comes with great documentation and knowledge base, the best (in my opinion) package management many other goodies. Installation is really quite simple, and you can get everything you need to start working and learning.

I do love this help we get: I have Ubuntu, Debian and have a lot of problems installing apps. Exactly where (i.e. konsul, midnight commander)???do you type: apt-get etc. please.

A confused & frustrated senior

i'd say give fedora a try. if you want a debian-based system, try mepis or one of the ubuntus. i think they're probably easier/more newb oriented than jumping right in with debian.

If you have started the Graphical Interface you can work with the command line in a terminal emulator. The KDE Konsole program is a terminal emulator. Commands for Debian and Ubuntu would be slightly different.
Maybe this would be helpful.
Good Luck

I'd recommend Linspire/Freespire. It has a visually appealing desktop, the Click 'n Run software is a easy frontend to apt, it has all the plugins installed, it's install is easy, and it's flashed based help files are a breath of fresh air for the confused newbie. It's really Debian under the hood, so it's very powerful and customizable.

linspire/freespire doesn't allow you to learn that much about linux

sure it does! It's easy to use, but still includes GCC, bash, and apt, and with those there, you can learn tons! That's how I learned!

but cnr isn't used in any other distro and I would think it would be worthwhile to learn how to use a package manager thats widely used