Which distro would be better for somebody (such as myself) who is a bit new to the linux enviroment? I'm running Fedora Core 5 right now and it recognizes everything and runs smoothly. However, I keep seeing ubuntu this and ubuntu that and it seems that ubuntu is the latest and greatest. Am I wrong here?

Here are some basic questions I have about Ubuntu:
- Does GRUB boot loader come standard? I'm dual booting between XP and Linux so this is a must (and I don't trust myself to install it).

- In FC5 there are a bunch of different packages you can install/uninstall. Many of them are so/so but a few of them are actually useful. Does Ubuntu have this?

- Would you reccomend Ubuntu to a semi-newbie? FC5 is really straight forward in that respect, but what about Ubuntu?

Thanks much,
niaski

There are so many threads similar to yours, so please use the search function to find previous discussions. As for which is better, this depends on your needs and personal preference. Why not try the Ubuntu Live CD and see whether it lives up to the hype. If you like it, use it, if you don't stick with FC5.

Check http://distrowatch.org/ too. As about bootloader, lilo has always been considered as the default and stable bootloader in Linux world. BTW, you can always change your bootloader when you want.

By the way Ubuntu ships with GRUB. The install CD does not include as many packages as FC5 (its only 1 cd) but you can install other packages from online repos.