What's the best Linux?

Easiest for a newbie, in my experience, is Ubuntu. Fairly painless installation (especially on SATA drives, which was a major problem for me with other distributions) and adding new programs (unless you get the AMD64 version like I did at home) is easy. All software that I've installed through the package manager has been put in sensible locations and configured intelligently by default. And yes, the user base is great.

 

I 2nd ubuntu.... http://www.ubuntu.com/

Nice install (so I've heard), out of the box working multi media (big thing for Linux), decent auto update... it's what a lot of people are swithcing to

 

If you haven't already done so I suggest partitioning your hard drive. Then you can keep Suse and try Ubuntu or Mandriva at the same time if you have enough room. There are several ways to proceed, I have had good luck with a program called called Partition Magic by Symantic. I'm sure some of the "experts" may have better ideas.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tumbleweed @ Jul 20 2006, 10:46 AM) [snapback]289456[/snapback]</div>

Ah, hard drive partitioning. In my opinion and experience, the best way to do it is a little program called QTParted. It's a free partitioning tool that's basically a clone of Partitioning Magic. My recommendation is to use it from a bootable CD. And yes, I have a favorite there. Knoppix. It is a Linux distribution designed to be run entirely off of a CD. Just download the ISO, burn, boot from the CD, and you're set to go. I've got a copy at home and several copies floating around the office just because it's SO handy for any sort of system level maintenance, partitioning, or whatever.