Linux Versions....Which one?

[#1]

A lot of choice there snailspace, and very sensible advice. There is so much to think about that no wonder newbies get confused.
Apparently for 30.5.09 to 29.6.09 Fedora got the most hits and Ubuntu second.
I thought that the latter was more popular. I hadn't even thought of looking at Fedora but it appears that it is a very popular distro so maybe I should have.
Wonder how Markus is getting on with his experiment?

[#2]

The thing about the "hits" counter is that they will be modified abnormally when a new release is due/released. You will probably find that Fedora had a new release then. The long term counter is probably better averaged over the year rather than a month.
I did try the live cd of Fedora 10 or 11, it wouldn't even give me a desktop on my main pc 
Ubuntu/Mint have issues but they are a lot better than they were 2 years ago when I started using them full time (and dropped Vista) and what the next release will be like 9.10  or 10.04/9. Since there is a 6 month release schedule with Ubuntu then there is always something new to look forward to, and the apps are changing constantly, take get_iplayer, I started with 0.4 something it is now on 1.15 with releases almost weekly, unheard of in the commercial side.

[#3]

Latest version is 2.15

./get_iplayer  --update

[#4]

Ok I was working from memory  I have the latest version, I update it weekly.
I have an alias in my bash script to do :-
alias gu='sudo get_iplayer --update&&sudo flv.sh'
the flv.sh downloads the latest flvstreamer & moves it to /usr/sbin, changes the attribs etc

[#5]

Simple answer to original question: download and try.
Personal (current) preference: PCLOS Desktop, CentOS Web Server.

[#6]

Which Linux?
Ubuntu is VERY good, Mint builds on this base and is even better for most people.
For fun, look at Gentoo - you learn a lot about Linux (though you don't have to if you use Ubuntu or similar).
If you really want a challenge, try Linux from Scratch, it is a valuable learning experience for anyone that has time to spare.

[#7]

Sorry,
a bit more to add..
some distros will occasionally throw problems at you when you update (there was an issue with Ubuntu and Intel Mobile graphics at the last version update) but please remember there are so many Linux choices out there, if one does not work righ for you then plese try another.  If you upgrade Windows and find that Vista (or 7) does not have drivers for your printer it's generally unlikely that it will ever be supported, with Linux you have a better chance of finding the required support and it is still free.  Anyone with hardware driver problems should check the excellent community support avalable as someone else has probably had the same problems before (and found a solution).  Whichever way you look at it, you cannot bet Linux in terms of' 'Value for money'.