Comment PCLinuxOS is the answer (Score 1) 622
I would urge anyone new to Linux coming from a windows background to try PCLinuxOS. It took me a while to discover as it seems to be the best kept secret of Linux. I've gone through Debian, Arch, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mint, Slackware, Mepis, Puppy but always come back to PCLinuxOS.
It's easy to install, easy to maintain and has excellent hardware recognition. Add a welcoming community that is happy to answer all the newbie questions without insulting people and you have the recipe for the 'Distro hopper stopper'. The PCLinuxOS version of KDE4 is also the best set up of all that I've tried.