Well, here's my two cents..

I'm running four different OSes on my machine. WinME, Win2k, WinXP Pro and Red Hat 7.3.

Now, WinME has GOT to be the absolute WORST version of Windows ever released. Yes, a lot of people have had problems with it, and a lot of people using it will have more problems to come. Instead of WinME, I would suggest you use Win98 SE.

Win2k is probably Windows' most stable operating system. I personally recommend it if you have a good enough machine. The Windows2000 Professional is a good choice for a stand-alone machine. It's reliable, and has decent support for multimedia too.

WinXP Pro, I've had a slight few problems with, but thats because of my own messing and tinkering around. It's a pretty good operating system. True, flaws have been popping up left and right, because it's bein scrutinzed to closely, but all in all, it's a fun operating system. but M$ Operating Systems are known to be resource hogs, and WinXP is no different. Don't bother installing this OS unless you've got a a bare minimum of 128 MB of ram. And that, I repeat is a BARE minimum. I'm running it with 384 MB of RAM. On a 128 MB, it was annoying. And ofcourse you'll have to deal with all the activation crap too. Another problem with it is that most of your old softwares will need to replaced by newer more current versions. Luckily, the installaion CD has an option that lets you check which programs might not work with WinXP, so there no need to panic.

Red Hat 7.3 on the other hand is a sweet OS. I would recommend it for any newbie wishing to delve into Linux. RH 8.0 is out, but I haven't been able to get my hands on it yet, so I can't say. But this is a good stable operating system folks. Fun to use, easy to install with anaconda ( The installation program. If I'm wrong, please correct me, though. ). it'll lead you through the partitioning, the detection of your mouse, keyboard, network card, display card etc. If you're looking for a good linux distro to start off with, I'd day try this one.

There we go.
Cheers.