redhat is pretty much the distro of choice for most people jumping into the linux world. it's probably going to have the simplest install and the most intuitive gui.

i've been a real big fan of suse 8.0, it's been going on my machine for two weeks stright (which is rare for any os) and i've only turned off maybe twice. i think the gui is just beautiful and it's the first distro to pick up both of my video cards (i have an onboard one and another gforce).

but whatever distro you choose, go to their websites first and make sure they support all of your hardware. nothing is more frustrating then spending three days downloading and burning iso's only to have the install crash in the first two minutes b/c it doesn't like your video card.