Ubuntu?
I installed a new flavor of linux yesterday. This one is called . So far I like it well enough to recommend it to anyone out there willing to give linux a chance. If you're not brave enough to actually install it on your computer, but are still a little curious, you'll be happy to know that they do offer a "live CD". Live CDs, for those of you that don't know, are bootable CDs with a working linux distro on them. Assuming your computer is set to try to boot from CD before the hard drive (most new ones are, and the rest can easily be set to do so), all you have to do is acquire a live CD, put it in your CD drive, reboot your computer, and when it comes back up, you'll be able to test drive a fully working version of ubuntu linux (many other distros of linux offer live CDs as well). When you're done, pull the CD back out, reboot the machine again, and you'll find yourself back in your regular operating system.
I opted to do a full install, which ran smooth as silk. After the 1 hour or so installation process, I was greeted with a snappy looking Gnome desktop (most other distros default to KDE), which was a new thing for me. So far, I like it. Ubuntu seemed to detect my hardware well, even down to the scroll wheel on my mouse, which was a frustration I had with earlier linux distros. I quickly found out how to use their package manager, Synaptic, to download and install additional software, as well as bring your current software up to date. It was easy to use, and allowed me to install a few things that weren't included in the default install, such as cvs and the GUI version of VIm. Firefox was included in the base install, which was nice. Basically this means that after an hour or two of work, I have a fully working machine with all of the hardware configured and working.