I suggest Red Hat 8 (currently in beta testing, but still quite good) It is by far the easiest linux distribution. It also has a consistent look between the applications (ie., kde apps look like gnome apps and vice versa) I'll link to some screenshots for an example.
NOTE: If you get stupid errors when trying to view these images that say "no outside linking of files, upgrade today" or some such shit, just reload the page a few times and that should fix it.
Here is the add/remove programs dialogue. You can use it to install/uninstall every bit of software that comes with Red Hat Linux. It's quite similar to the ones in (yuk) windows, except when you uninstall things it
really removes everything instead of keeping a bunch of files and registry keys in your machine. Installing downloaded programs is very easy, too, if they are in RPM format. All you have to do is double click the file in nautilus, enter the administrator password, and you're done.
This Screenshot shows Kdevelop and Glade running. Apart from the names, can you tell which is a kde program and which is a gnome program? They have the same widget theme, huh? Isn't that cool?
There are some other things I won't make screenshots of; I'll just tell you. Openoffice 1.01 is included, and while it's slow to start it's quite functional and has great compatibility with MS Office. Evolution is like Outlook except it isn't a malware virus trap. All the fonts are anti-aliased and look almost as good as the ones on a Mac. Best of all, this version of Linux has given me the least crap out of all versions I've used. It "just works" (to steal a Mac phrase) Mandrake has always been known as the best desktop Linux distro, but I urge people to try this new version of Red Hat.
