Hi Mark,

Ubuntu will do you just fine if you need a smooth transition from Windows to *nix without having to engage in black magic and voodoo incantations. If you dont mind, you could try sabayon 4, knoppix 6, or Vector Linux for more adventure. With these, you could pick up this book http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz and learn spell-binding commands and invocations! btw the book, rute, applies to any *nix system and you will find it extremely helpful now and even much later when you are become the geekest of us all. try it.

another one to try would be linuxfromscratch.org, you build your system from .. well .. nothing, scratch. as daunting as the task may sound, you are not literally plunging into the unknown; there's a very detailed accompanying guide book that will help you in the setup. here, you concoct your own magic spells and devise rituals. you are now your own druid!

Good luck, and welcome .. :)