Hi,
for the impatient who want's to try out linux knoppix is a good choice, no need for hd install,good software choice and no non-standard software (debian based).It also has put much effort into beeing a GUI system.
for the developer who "just" want's a development system for linux i suggest using Mandrake, it has very good i18n support, in contrast to suse or debian it comes shipped with a lot of additional tools for management, so any tip/howto suitable for redhat or suse will work. including grafical, menudriven console admin tools and a (one!) centralized gui tool for hardware and system configuration.
The issue of hardware not beeing detected, can be a real showstopper, this applies mostly to new gfx hardware and (cheap) multimedia stuff. as soon as the hardware is common there is usually a driver avail; but unlike windows old standards come seldomly osolet, so e.g. for printing there are 3 driver models, mostly interoperatable by middleware drivers. Also the distro developer does not update each kernel version, so if you dare to compile a kernel better only use knoppix :-). From my experinence i would say forget what you "know" from windows, linux is a trial and error system, if you loose motivation when it does not work it nothing for you ;-)
If you like to setup a system which has no need for updates or re-installs go for linux and install all development stuff, i promisse you will only have to add software when you want something new, and this is unlike windows, even for a redhat system.
To correct the belive linux ain't good for multimedia, take a look at my favourite linux software
VDR, it allows for allmost everything related to DVB, DVD and Divx: recording, creation, converting and replay.
All controlled with a IR infront of the TV :-)
See the main
plugins developped for it, to see why even the german press sees it generations ahed of MS media center or alikes.
Cheers memed
/* i run numerus linux servers, BUT i use a windows as desktop client, i have to have Office for my business, and CS for my recreation, i ain't a evangelist for linux, i just love running systems */
p.s. any developer/coder going into linux as dev. system: feel free to ask for resources/help (where to get rpm's, how get XYZ compiling) for hardware questions i can help in hard cases [assist in bulding kernel
]