I used to like SuSE better than Mandrake and RedHat, but haven't tested it in a long time. I had some trouble setting up OpenSuse and Fedora last time i tried (tabletPC, 2003 Edit: made in 2003, not installed Linux in 2003. I still use the tabletPC)

Ubuntu is a "safe" choice because it has a wide specter of usage across many hardware setups.

I did install Linux Mint lately because I had some problems with Ubuntu and other distros, but today I'd rather install the Linux Mint Debian Edition - which is a rolling update based directly on Debian instead of Ubuntu. The advantage of having a rolling update over traditional distro is that a rolling update will not "expire". in the same way that i.e. Linux Mint 10 did when Linux Mint 11 was out. It's kinda like Opera Next vs Opera 11.

At any given time, I have rather been paying to use Windows on my desktop than using the free Linux alternatives of that era. But remember, back when I started trying Linux distros, they were FAR behind Windows in usability. This is much approved since. By now, I'm probably just too used to Windows' solutions.

I would never, ever run Windows on my servers. Oh, and I have (reluctantly) been administrating both Windows and Linux servers commercially. I would SO recommend using SELinux.

And anyone who recommends you not to use antivirus [on any platform] deserves to get hit with viruses. Hopefully a good antivirus product will detect viruses, worms, malware, root kits, bots etc. If only Windows machines held this nastyness, it could never spread over Linux- and unix-based Internet. Every mail that reach your/your bosses outlook, went through one or more linux servers. Some of which actually scan and remove email viruses. And root kits would be named admin-kits if they came from the Windows world ;p

I use Ubuntu 11.04 (64bit)
and Bactrack 5 (64bit)...so its triple booting
but i think u should go for Ubuntu..it has good hardware support as well......

I use Ubuntu 11.04 (64bit)
and Bactrack 5 (64bit)...so its triple booting
but i think u should go for Ubuntu..it has good hardware support as well......

as for 64/32 bits, I think your graphic card is NVidia + recent enough to provide gpu acceleration on flash video (well, only in youtube actually ), but this only works (as of today) on the 32 bits version..

On the choice of distribution, well I didn't test many of them so I can't really tell, but I'm using Ubuntu my desktop, home server/htpc and netbook, and it works quite smoothly. All with unity (I've tested kubuntu a bit but it was laggy on my desktop, so I came back to vanilla ubuntu)

For me the different distros are more down to what look you prefer, of course some will be better supported then others so "drivers" will be easier to find/included.

For me it's Ubuntu 10.10 32Bit until they get 11.04 fixed or 11.10 comes out, right now i have dualboot 10.10 & 11.04 and 11.04 runs like sh*t, so if you want to be "safe" with big community and a VERY good OS i vote ubuntu 10.10

Other then that i have tried almost all distros when i started getting in to Linux and ubuntu was the one i kept coming back to, and a side note, i always config the desktop & panels as it was win98, this also helps when i give it to others, then the transition from win to linux is almost not there. Got my dad and mom on it to, and my mom just had to know a few basic things and now see has more usage out of her laptop.

I think that anybody who calls himself/herself a "linux-dummy" should begin with the most widely used distribution, because it will probably also be the most tested (so hopefully the least buggy) and it will be the easiest to find (how-to) guides for such a distribution.

So I would recommend to use 32bit Ubuntu 11.04 or a ubuntu derivative like Linux Mint 11 (32bit).

This version can also use more then 4GB ram, so for that you do not need the 64bit version. In fact I think the 64bit version will give new-users more problems than advantages. Also in the next Ubuntu there will be some significant changes in the way the 64bit version handles 32bit libraries and software. So if you really want to use 64bit, use the 32bit version of 11.04 for now, and upgrade to the 64bit version of Ubuntu 11.10 when it becomes available.

Back when I used SuSE (ca 2001) I liked it because it had the easily most consistent and intuitive GUI of the current distros. It wasn't at all the widest distributed, I belive that was RedHat. So yes, it's important to have a wide audience but also to be newbie friendly in other ways.

I guess a rookie will not want to run Mint, because in my experience (ca 2010/2011), tips and tricks from the Ubuntu forums do not always fit Mint. But Ubuntu probably has the most rounded experience, so that's a good place to start.

Edit: forgot 'not' in 'will not want'...

Well, I think debian is the best :O
But I haven't used any other linux OS besides Debian lol.
Debian is 100% Free.

Edit: Woot 100th post LOL

If you want a distro that has a bit better security than standard, go for openSUSE. Apparmour installed by default... The other distro I can personally recommend is Mepis. It's Debian based and very compatible with vanilla Debian. It tends to work well with just about whatever hardware I throw at it and has an excellent but small-ish community.

Ubuntu the best for beginners.
I had bad experience with opensuse so I won't advice it.