What kind of Linux should I start with?

Welcome to Linux!

First off, just to alleviate any confusion, the different kinds of Linux are called “distributions”, or “distros” for short.

There are literally hundreds of distros, and which one you choose is largely up to personal preference. Ubuntu, my distro of choice, is the most popular. If you want all of your hardware to work right out of the box, Ubuntu is probably your best bet. However, Ubuntu has all sorts of off-shoots that are derived from it. Ubuntu itself uses the GNOME desktop environment (you’ll learn all about this stuff eventually). GNOME is one of the two most popular DE’s, the other being KDE. There is a Ubuntu off-shoot called Kubuntu that uses KDE instead of GNOME. I would do a little research to see which you prefer. There is also Xubuntu, which uses XFCE, Ubuntu Studio, which is aimed at multimedia production, Ubuntu Netbook Remix, which is designed for tiny netbook screens, and a few others. Linux Mint is a separate distro built from Ubuntu that uses a slightly modified version of GNOME and some customized applications. Regardless of which one you choose, you’re still getting essentially the same operating system with all of the same great software.

No matter what you choose, you’re going to be able to customize it to look any way you wish. If you use GNOME, you can go to www.gnome-look.org to find all sorts of themes and gadgets. There are similar sites for KDE, XFCE, etc.

But you’re not just limited to Ubuntu and it’s derivatives. There are tons of other distros out there that use completely different package managers. I would recommend just doing a little bit of research. Feel free to ask any questions.

What’s great about starting with Ubuntu is that it has the largest support community of all the distros at http://ubuntuforums.org. When I first installed Ubuntu, I found the answer to 95% of my problems on those forums.

Good luck!

I think that Ivan said most of the important stuff, but I’d like to add a few things.

First, Ubuntu uses software packages from Debian. This is a big plus, because the Debian project put a ton of effort into putting a diverse variety of free software into packages that can be easily installed. The big alternative to Debian packages is Redhat packages, which I am less familiar with so I couldn’t comment on. I think you’ll find that most distros based on Debian end up feeling pretty similar (I used both Ubuntu Hardy and Debian Lenny for a long time and rarely encountered a major difference between them. Perhaps someone more involved with the internals would have a different perspective).

It’s also worth noting that Ubuntu has a reputation for being easy to install and set up for the first time. And once you’re familiar with Linux it probably won’t be too hard to switch distros if your preferences change.

Linux Mint, because it has everything Ubuntu has plus Nicer look, Flash and most codecs pre installed.

Ubuntu because most people seem to like it, so it’s most likely you’ll do so too. But: do the research. Switching operating systems is quite the undertaking, considering that operating systems are complex beasts, so you shouldn’t expect to just sit down and understand everything right away. Start with the official Ubuntu documentation.