Linux term basically refers to kernel. Windows also has its kernel of around thousands of possible lines but they have not revealed their program codes or API to anybody. Linux believes in open source strategy. Source code of Linux is open and anybody can use it and modify it but he needs to share it among all freely. Open source term has broader meaning and it should not be confused with free always because some developers may ask price for their services like assembling charges, shipping charges or so. Linux comes under GNU General public license and for more information read about its license on http://www.linux.org/info/gnu.html. When packages are assembled over Linux kernel meeting all their dependencies then it becomes more worthy of working and is known as distribution. There are thousands of packages available which can be assembled over kernel in number of forms meeting its target. Some distributions for PC which are worth of try for a new comer are Opensuse, Mandriva, Fedora, Ubuntu, and Sabayon. You can read published article relating to selecting my linux at hub pages. Although there are other distributions available as well but I would not recommend them for a new comer because either their release dates is not regular or there are chances that some of their codes are very buggy and unstable. Nearly every Linux distribution comes up with live CD and you do not need to install it for a try. There are some tiny distributions like Damn Small Linux (DSL), Puppy Linux etc. that can be directly installed in USB drive and any changes made will be stored to USB itself. For this you must check your computer if it can boot from USB and its priority in boot list. DSL has only Linux kernal along with few packages installed. Opensuse comes with its powerful administrative manager called Yast. It has gooo\d graphical interface which makes installation of Opensuse very easy for a new comer. It is also my first distribution which I tested on my laptop nearly 4 years ago. Though during that time most distributions do not have good GUI and it has KDE in its initial stage which makes me admire Linux against Windows XP. Opensuse packages are rpm packages and it has very strong repository where you can find latest version of packages. If you are not able to willing to install from repository than you can also install packages using "One click install" method.To install multimedia applications which is not installed by default either you need to do it through "one click install" or you need to do it manually from VLC player and Fluendo website.

Sabayon distribution is new comer but has been popular a lot. It has nice eye candy graphical user interface with KDE at its default desktop environment. Most movies and songs plays right away as has XBMC multimedia centre. Gamers ovre Linux like this distribution as most Linux games are available in it by default. It has "Portage" as its package manager which resolves most of dependencies issues among packages. Recently KDE 4.3 has released and it will be available in upcoming version of Sabayon making it more famous among new comers.

Ubuntu has GNOME desktop environment which is also very powerful. Installation of Ubuntu is also very easy. For any distribution if you do not want to go through normal partitioning of hard disk you can also do it custom but for this you need to know directory tree structure of Linux. Always use SWAP space during installation with at least 128 MB size and Root with 2 GB size. Read more regarding partitioning at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowtoPartition Ubuntu has strong repositories where you can find almost all kind of recent version of applications . It is highly stable distributions so far. Mandriva is based upon Red hat. It also has nice installation GUI. It has its own administrative manager known as "Mandriva Control Centre" which is very powerful and all things are well organised there, making it more user friendly for new comers. Fedora is completely on Red Hat and is also funded by it .It has GNOME as its default environment. Thanks and Regards