[tuxfreak]

just noticed this thread, and I've just got to say a few things:

• RedHat is not easier to use than Mandrake
• the official Mandrake 10.0 is now available, and it's by far the best Mdk ever released
• why use SuSE when you have to pay for it? There are so many more excellent distos out there that are 100% free. I'm aware that there is a free FTP-install for SuSE, but it's a pain in the ass and takes forever. I also there there is a free 'personal' edition of 9.1, but it is extremely limited.
• Slackware can be VERY user friendly. The great thing about slackware is that you can literally make it into whatever you want. The only thing about it that isn't user friendly is the install, only because it doesn't use a GUI. Generally speaking, slackware does take a slightly more advanced user to set up, but once it's set up, you are free to make it however you wish. You can you the ever so popular KDE desktop (which is what most people are talking about when they say 'user friendly Linux')or Gnome or one of many other windowing environments.
• most popular Desktops for Linux (KDE & Gnome) are starting to get a bit bloated. Most of the popular distros are designed around one or the other (i.e. Mandrake, Red Hat, Fedora, SuSE,...). While you can use other desktops with these distros, they are best suited for the one they were designed for. This makes them a less-than-ideal choice for old hardware. If your PC has a hard time running XP, then you may want to consider something else. Once again I'm back at slackware. With slackware you can use any desktop manager (Blackbox/Fluxbox)with ease and is much more suited for older hardware.
• If you're up for a slightly steeper learning curve, then I'd highly suggest Slackware. That is where the real freedom of Linux lies :2cents: