Small update from my side. I'd recommend Ubuntu for Gnome, or Kubuntu if you want KDE. Nearly no extra wackyness with the new Dapper v6.06 that is currently downloadable. Grab Easy Buntu off the forums and all you extra net/multimedia files will work. The one drawback is that Flash for Linux is still version 7, 8.5 is in the works. Adobe bought Macromedia about the time 8 came out so the decided to just skip a version.