I agree to what thread_killer said concerning flame wars and religious zeal. Because of this I will not recommend any distribution.

Personally I've startet with Linux in 1994 using SuSE and I'm still using it on my private computers. At work I use Red Hat on several servers since a couple of years. Although there are some differences both distris are satisfying for me. Once they are up and running, you won't see any big difference. They are both just GNU/Linux systems.

In the next time i plan to try out the Debian distribution for two reasons:

1. Debian is not as commercial, as the two distris mentioned above.
2. It is said, that because of its packet management system it shall be easier to preserve an actual system over *years* including all security updates. I'm curious about it.

h@rdb@ll just as a tip: If you want to see how Linux works on your computer without installing it, have a look at http://www.heise.de/ct/ . This magazine contains a CD-ROM containing a completely configured Linux called "Knoppix" (http://www.knoppix.de) able to boot and run completely from CD. It should be available in the netherlands too. But you should hurry - on monday a new c't edition will appear.

Uhu

P.S. After I've seen the many intermediate posts while I've been writing I want to point out: Knoppix is not a distribution. It is a highly preconfigured Debian GNU/Linux. Anyways it is ingenious!
... just to avoid misunderstandings.