If someone has a PC with windows adding 512MB of memory is cheap, ddr2 goes for under $20 at Tiger Direct. Most computer makers have documentation that tells you what to get and how to install it.
VMware Server and Virtual Box are free and easy to use.
DistroWatch.com has all the distros listed above and then some.
Installing to a virtual machine is safe and allows someone to develop their skills and test many different distros.
If you don't have a high speed internet connection you can buy distros for a small amount and Virtual Box is 22MB for download.
As far as Linux is concerned Virtual Box is included as a package in some distros. I have it running in PCLinuxOS with XP as a guest and it seems to work better than in XP. It's also included in OpenSuSe but I haven't tried it.

I never expected myself to say Ubuntu, but that is what I chose. It seems to be the most plug 'n' play, straight-forward distro out there. Things just work. You can fiddle if you want to, but you don't have to.

I liked Mandriva a lot, too, and always recommended it to newbies, but I had to spend much time fiddling with it. Although I hate to admit it, I have found it a relief to use Windows Vista SP1 with open source software, rather than continuing to use Mandriva on my new PC. However, I have put Ubuntu on my old PC and am happy thus far.

So, Ubuntu it is.

When my first time with Linux i boot up the ubuntu but gnome don't make me feel ok. It's stable but lose a bit of options to customize for what i need. Then i meet the mepis now know as simple mepis and i love KDE so much. I thinks KDE base destop distros are the good chois for newbie who from windows user like me.

Well the Opensuse is my pick up for vote because that is my main Linux os ^^ it's take all the configure in to yast2 for you easy to manager.The package manager is not good when update and installl from net but it's really fast now compare from the old suse ^^. It's great for me.

PS: This is my suggest from my experien in Linux only.
-I'm not native English speaker so if my post has something wrong about the gamma or word or something else don't blame me and you can read it right ^^

No offense to any distro. But Mandriva offers the best Linux for newbies.. http://www.techenclave.com/reviews-a...th-111577.html

No point in using PCLOS because it provides old S/w and is based on Mandriva so better use Mandriva.. Ubuntu is great. You can try that but it doesn't provide as many conf tools as Mandriva.. Open SUSE 11.0 has some stability issue. So leave that..

This is so laughable, I had to quote it.

I find Mandriva horrible. Slow to the point of unusable. Mandriva will grind to a halt, on several machines that run various other versions of Linux just fine (*buntus, Debian, Fedora, and several others..) Mandriva constantly locks up, suffers extreme slowdowns, etc.

There is no best(or worst) distro, its just a personal choice that everyone has. Until one distribution does something, that clearly no other distribution does or does something way better than the others, then there will never be a best. Its all personal preference, its why these polls are hilarious.

IGF

I recommend CentOS - it is stable, free (really - no fee to download, install, unless you really, really want to buy the media), and is exactly the same as RHEL.

I tried SuSE before, and I've worked with some really old Linux distros, the names of which I no longer recall. CentOS was the easiest install and use I've found.

IMNSHO: Ubuntu is too much like Window$, although it is also easy to use and install.

However, once you have any Linux installed, they are all more or less the same underneath, and also in terms of the GUIs provided - GNOME and KDE (primarily). Each has its own customizations, and you can play with them forever (literally).

My personal fave: CentOS.

Where are Red Hat and CentOS? Are they not Linux any more?

mhr

Best is Linux From Scratch, it teaches a lot

Seriously, anything does. If you're a real newbie, you need to start off with "what's an operating system? what's a file? how does a directory differ from a file, and what is it in the first place!?" and you can just as well blind-shoot and pick one operating system out of the huge selection of both commercial and non-commercial or free-of-charge operating systems. QNX is a nice piece to start off with without manuals, Windows teaches a bunch of stuff with dull themes singing in the background and Gentoo offers you some "now what is this" -experiences. But if it has to be Linux, any one of them works -- if you read the magazines, it's Ubuntu for now. If you don't, it doesn't matter as long as it has more users (listed in DistroWatch or similar site) than you have ever counted sheeps while trying to get some sleep.

I'll underline the last sentence: if you pick up a Linux distribution with around 10 users, it's probably something so new and shiny that you'll get frustrated before it's running. Sticking to the popular ones makes it a smoother start.

I have my preferences, but the individual really makes the difference (repetitive I know).

There are tools out there to help choose a distro based on knowledge/skill level. Use one of those and try a couple of the suggestions.

Well, that depends... "Bad user" typically doesn't have any idea what is going into his/her computer, independent of installed OS. But don't underestimate everybody, this depends of the personal qualities of people.

I think a better question would be what kind of users make for successful newbies.

Ask most Windows users to download Linux/GNU and put it on a CD and you end up with a CD with a single file on it named some_os_name_and_version.iso. At that point it doesn't matter what distro they're trying or how "easy" the installer may be.

Good point.

Newbies who have a system already setup and running would have a different perspective than someone who has to do it themselves, and even more of a difference if they don't know where/how to begin the process.

Show me a newbie who doesn't fit the profile of: already running windows. Honestly I think distros should offer a Windows tool that downloads and burns a CD for users if they are actually targeting newbies with their installers. Until Linux is pre-installed on many more systems it only makes sense to provide a brainless tool for getting and burning a Linux CD (Since there aren't any that come with Windows).

It wasn't until a Google Summer of code project (http://infrarecorder.sourceforge.net/) came along that I actually could find a good free way to burn Linux CDs if you didn't already have Linux.

That's a good idea but why burn a CD?

Are there any Windows based installers that actually do what the CD/DVD media does?

It's probably the simplest to develop and get distros to include on their download page. It could also be made to work with all distributions (only key difference being the URL to the .iso file).