[GLLUG] Distribution for new users coming from Windows?

[Jeremy Bowers]

So I wrote something on my website about these Windows rootkits that 
really ought to be the last nail in Microsoft's coffin, even thought 
they probably won't be:

http://www.jerf.org/iri/2005/02/18.html#P2459

And as I said in that link, I'd like to recommend a distribution to 
people who are fleeing from Windows. The problem is, the only one I've 
used seriously in the last two or three years is Gentoo, so I have no 
good idea what a good Windows-refugee distribution is, although I'm 
pretty sure Gentoo ain't it; my last experience is with Mandrake just 
after they forked from Red Hat. (I guess I also used Fedora, but I found 
it a pain to update or install new software for, and while long-time 
users swear up and down it can be made easy, I'm looking for something 
that <i>starts</i> easy, not "is easy after you push the magic buttons 
on 'yum'".)

Thoughts, and, ideally, experiences with this situation? Answers will be 
processed, collated, sliced, diced, and used to come out with one or two 
suggestions. (There's no value in burying them in recommendations...)

(I know I've seen this question before online but the answers keep 
changing and I have no way of knowing if any given answer is up-to-date.)