I have tried Red Hat, Suse and Mandrake and now Ubuntu.

At the moment I am using Ubuntu as my primary operating system (only swapping to Doze for games). Ubuntu has got to be the most user friendly Linux distro around

I have started some tutorials and a wiki for Ubuntu on my site feel free to visit </end shameless plug>

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I made the switch just about a month ago but I been using Suse back since 8.0 They have come along way I can't wait till November when 10.3 opensuse comes out.

I switched all my pc's and laptops over to opensuse 10.2 and haven't switched back to windows yet in just over a month.

I thought about buying some new Dell's they have them now with Ubantu preinstalled just look for there open source pc's there about 200 to 300 dollars cheaper for one of them with linux then one with windows vista.

Also there is a support forum for opensuse so it makes it really nice to get help fast!!

Just my 2 cents...

I have tried most of the major linux distros and the best way to answer the question in my opinion is decide what you plan on using it for? also how comfortable you are with using unix based commands, and the linux os.

If you are running any type of server or want the best stability, like months of up time I would suggest CentOS distro.
If you are a new user, you should start out with ubuntu/kubuntu to get your feet wet, it is a very forgiving linux disto.
If you plan on mostly coding etc, than your going to want to use fedora. (I believe it is, feel free to correct me if I am wrong, used so many distro's in a period of a few weeks.)
The best distro for a balance of all the above would have to be debian. (this distro is a jack of all trades, but a master of none.) Meaning that it can do anything you want it to do, but not as well as a distro that is serving a specific purpose.

some other distro's worth mentioning are:
SuSe- I found it to be a little boggy for a linux distro.
RedHat - This principal of linux is that it is free, redhat is not.
mandrake/mandriva - eh? not much I can say here
BSD based distro's - they use ports which can be confusing. They have a lot of applications and programs in there repository which can make it difficult to find one you are looking for.

Distro's I have not tried yet is slackware and gentoo. I have also not tried any of the less talked about distro's. Hope you find this useful if you are looking for a distro that will fit your needs.

i really haven't tried using linux and have not seen how it interact. But a lot of friends told me its a nice Operating System next to mac and windows.

umm.. not really next to windows and mac.

windows is based on dos. more "user friendly" but slower than what I am about to mention.

Linux is based on UNIX, which is what servers had run on for many many years.. and still runs on today. (servers need speed, reliability as it needs to be dependable.) and UNIX is what makes linux so much faster and dependable than both mac and windows combined (ummm.. well technologically speaking that would create an even bigger problem.)

If you are interested enough in trying out linux, this is what I suggest you do. download http://www.virtualbox.org/ this will make it so that you can run linux while windows is still running. in a window of itself. since you don't know much about linux, I would suggest you start with ubuntu which is found here http://www.ubuntu.com/ be sure to download the ISO version.

install virtual box, and set it up.. have the emulated rom drive point to the ubuntu iso that you installed.. start up the program and just do the quick and easy install. (don't do advanced yet, as it is more complex than it needs to be for a new user.) once it is installed and really should only take a "few" minutes. you now have a linux distro installed inside of your windows o/s. now just play with it, figure it out.. if you break it just install it again.. you can't hurt anything as the "hard drive" is just a file which can be deleted and re-created.

If you have problems setting this up etc. just ask your friend to help you. I am sure that if he is a linux enthusiast as most linux users are (otherwise we wouldn't bother using it.) he will be thrilled to assist you in experiencing the wonderful world of the underground operating system otherwise known as linux. (btw, I could sit here and throw all sorts of information at you about the complexity's of why linux is proven to be a much better o/s then bother MacOS and Winblows (sorry, windows. a little linux joke there.))

by the way, both peices of software I have mentioned in this post are indeed free. another reason why linux is better than windows and MacOS! There is a learning curve to using it to it's full capacity, however.

enjoy!