I use Gentoo and ubuntu.
I love the terminal. Its very useful. Plus, everything is fully customizable.
Linux is far better in my opinion. Plus, 8 second startup times in Gentoo is far better than windows will ever do.
Ubuntu is very good for noob's. Learn the terminal. Use it for EVERYTHING!
ubuntu and Fedora are the only two distros that I know of that has a graphical installer. The rest are command line version, this is where knowing how to use the terminal is useful.
I use Debian, its alot more complicated than Ubuntu kuz the rsv's are all screwed up but it also suites my networking needs : wink wink : wireshark, dsniff ettercap..etc etc.