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Every Linux distro is most user friendly if you want it to be and every Linux distro has audio and video drivers.What I'm saying is I can't answer your question.You will have to find out for your self.It's the best way.
I say that the best distro to start with is PCLinuxOS. Search on google for it (or for PCLOS-it's the same thing). It's easyto install and easy to configure. Start by downloading a live cd with this distro to see if you like it.
You're asking a catch-22 question. The most user friendly version won't have everything you might need for audio and video. The best audio and video applications must be installed from a repository, and more than likely are proprietary. The easiest distributions to use are usually packaged in a live/install CD but won't have all the codecs you may need. The distros with the best software are usually less newbie friendly, but have the most up-to-date packages available. It depends on YOU, and what you want to do. Are you a musician with audio software needs? Do you want to take videos from a video camera and make a DVD? Do you want to download music and make music CDs? Do you want to download AVI movies and make DVDs? Do you wnat to create a website/server with audio/video capabilities? Do you want to illegally copy DVD movies to store on your computer? Do you want to illegally copy DVD movies to a DVD? It depends on what you want to do.
asking which nix distro is the best is like asking "what is your favorite food", everyone is going to have a different opinion.
As for your question, I really would try Ubuntu. Its user friendly and its has a loot of online support. Not only that but there is a repo called medibuntu (check out the website www.medibuntu.org) that has all the media stuff you will need. It will even tell you how to add their repository.
I agree, if you want a user-friendly distribution which has all of the multimedia packages pre-installed, use pclinuxos. Ubuntu is also friendly, and it is easy to install the multimedia stuff, but some things are not installed by default.
If you want to enjoy Linux but want to start learning it as well, I suggest Red Hat Fedora 8. I recently installed it on VMware on my WinXP laptop and like the way it is so far.
Another good choice if you want the user-friendliness of Ubuntu with all the multimedia stuff pre-installed and configured is linux mint. I have not used it myself, but I have heard good things about it. Also consider simplymepis. It has all the pluses of the debian/ubuntu software repositories, and has many multimedia packages installed by default, but maybe not as many as pclinuxos.
I suggest to download a whole bunch of Live Cds and try them out. The Linux distro that I really like is OpenSuse, I have used Red hat and fedora before and I think SuSe is very user friendly but again is all your own personal choice.
go and check it out. www.opensuse.org
Ark Linux is a very newbie-friendly distro. It doesn't prompt you for root passwords all the time just to do simple stuff (read up on the Ark Security System in Ark's wiki). As for whether or not it has your video/audio drivers, I don't know because you do not tell us what you have.
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