yes i have heard great things about openSUSE and i am going to try it out once i can get a blank DVD. but the very first distro i ever tried was PCLinuxOS .93 and i loved it, its great for beginners, and yet, its good enough to use if you're not. and the interface is similar to windows so if you're new to linux, you can get used to the good things about linux without being confused about finding your way around. PCLinuxOS is also very good at detecting hardware too. well, most of the top linux distros are now.
another one is SimplyMEPIS, thats a great one, great interface, great hardware detection, great everything, but not quite as much for someone new to linux, but still very user-friendly.
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Torvalds was contemptuous of Microsoft's claims and has asked Redmond to name the patent infringements so that their veracity can be challenged and workarounds found.
"Naming them would either make it clear that Linux is not infringing at all (which is quite possible, especially if the patents are bad), or would make it possible to avoid infringing by coding around whatever silly thing they claim,"
"So the whole 'We have a list and we're not telling you' should tell you something. Don't you think that if Microsoft actually had some really foolproof patent, they'd just tell us and go, 'nyaah, nyaah, nyaah!'?"
whole story here:
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/21...-microsoft-put