graeme_p - 10:53 am on May 19, 2009 (gmt 0)

1) Hardware compatibility is the biggest problem. Most things work out of the box with most distros, but it is worth checking before installing, especially on a laptop. You need to check wireless and 3d video in particular.

2) Try live CDs. They run slowly but will let you get a taste of different distros and desktops. They also let you check out of the box hardware compatibility (which may vary between distros).

3) Check distro repositories. It makes software installation much easier if everything you need is a click away and it all auto updates.

All the major distros repos have all the common desktops apps, and most make it easy to set up a LAMP stack, but some have a lot more: Debian based distors (including Ubuntu) have huge repositories.

4) My own opinion is that KDE is easiest windows power users, as well as very flexible in general, but you might prefer the elegance of Gnome, or to trade features for speed with one of the light desktops. Of course you can change your mind, but it is good to have a distro that supports your desktop well.

As for starting points, I like Ubuntu or Mint (Ubuntu with some additions) for ease of installation and big repos or Mandriva (largely because they do KDE better than Ubuntu). If you only want a server, then Debian or RedHat/CentOS might be better.