I haven't used Linux much, just a few distro's, mostly just Knoppix live.
I've always been an Windows and a OSX user, but as of a few weeks ago, I installed Linux Mint, and haven't looked back, I deleted Windows completely, and I'm overly satisfied with mint. It has everything I need, and the ease of use features are wonderful.

For any beginning Linux user, i def recommend Mint, however. I think i may just stay with it indefinitely.

It won't install if you put it on a rewritable CD, but if you download it and put it on a CD-R then t works just fine. I had been using Ubuntu, but Linux Mint is much easier to use - for as soon as you have installed it, it plays DVDs straightaway, and it comes complete Adobe Flash and all the other plugins that you need to make it instantly usable.

Mint has been consistently the best overall on my sundry machines, however, I can't tell how it utilizes my 4+g memory on x64 platforms, compared to mepis and mandriva rc2. Will it need ENVY with the latest kernal. Obviously I'm not IT, but a doctor trying to foster open source (OSIRIX, etc.).