OpenSUSE lacks multimedia support & you have to run around cyberspace like a chicken with its head cut off to get the proper repositories to find them.

Okay then OpenSuse is a no-go. Any other suggestions?

Just about any linux distro except Mint is going to make you jump through hoops to get vast codec support, mostly because it's illegal in the US to send them pre-installed in the distro. I generally just install vlc...it covers my needs and works on most anything.

NO IT DOSE NOT!!!!!!!
https://en.opensuse.org/Restricted_formats
it is do to the asinine dumb hair pulling stupidity of the USA patent and copyright offices


all the multimedia is there AND VERY WELL DOCUMENTED!!!!!!
it is in the "packman" repo
https://en.opensuse.org/Restricted_formats
JUST!!! like fedora and redhat CAN NOT BY LAW!!!!!! ship it
( they are inside the IRON CURTAIN of copyright stupidity that is called the US of A )

the installing of multimedia in opensuse is VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY WELL WELL WELL WELL documented

just a bit hard to find ( you can thank the lawyers for that bit of dumb stupidity )

https://en.opensuse.org/Restricted_formats

please read the wiki
https://en.opensuse.org/Main_Page

it is WAY!!! easier to install all the multi media in opensuse than fedora
Novell has actually PAID for some of the licenses
so "Out of the box" OpenSUSE supports WAY MORE formats than fedora and redhat can

OK... I'm looking at a bunch of distros.

Is creating an image of the system as simple as copying the files of / and /boot?

I'm wondering if I just copy the files to a spare HDD if that is sufficient enough to create a fast backup?

What commands should I use to back up?

No, you have to use dd or the GNOME Disk Utility for that. The GNOME Disk Utility is harder to mess up, I'd recommend using that.

Hasn't disappointed me. Been using Fedora 21 longer than I've had any install of Ubuntu or Debian yet. Latest bug with Ubuntu is the harddrive thrashes for no reason. *sigh*...reinstall...

I don't have GNOME installed. Can I still use the GNOME Disk Utility?

If not, what is the dd command I need to run?

Yes you could use it even if you don't have Gnome installed, when you go to install the disk utility it will grab whatever dependencies it needs.

That's all moot though, you can't image a mounted and running disk. You'll need to reboot to a live CD/DVD/USB in order to image your drive, otherwise the image will be corrupt.

The dd command depends on the drive labels assigned to your disks.

Install the GNOME Disk Utility by either running
or
Or with dd, find the source and destination in the /dev directory and do
Where sdX is the source and sdY is the destination. I find it easiest to use the Disk Utility to find the device name, but you can use any method you like.

If you want to monitor the status, install a program called pv and insert it into the dd command:
Hope this helps.

Has anyone tried Elementary OS?

With the backup methods that were suggested:

dd
Gnome Disk Utility
Clonzilla

Do they require a blank HDD for the backup?? I have storage disks in my computer but there are files on them and I can't wipe them out. So I really need to create images, not a block by block transfer.

Instead of constantly messing with distro's and wiping over your (primary?) computer everytime you try a new distro, why not use virtual ones?

Keep LM for a bit and install something like virtualbox. Then install every distro you could want to try inside of each virtualbox and get a feel for it. If you don't like it - trash it. No loss
If you find one that is stable, the applications you like work well and you get a feel for it - then wipe the system and go for it.

I was going to do that. I'm more concerned about the backup for when I do make the switch.

Considering you're planning to switch distro's, I'd focus on backing up "generic" system-wide configs like ssh, samba, apache, etc (provided you actually modified them)
I'd probably leave the user configs - ~/.* alone since it might vary among different distro's. Not sure.
I wouldn't use dd... since it's a block device copy and would be designed to make a perfect copy of your current setup. Not something very useful when you want to switch distro's ("restoring" would bring back your system as it is right now)
So... I'd copy all personal files of course.

Commands like rsync, scp are great for backing up files over a network. If you just want to grab your personal files and put them into a file you can tar them up with a command like this:
Dating the tar file is a wise idea.