So how do you figure out which one to use?

Perhaps the best place to start is with yourself. Make an honest assessment of exactly how comfortable you are with computers in general, and how much effort you want to put into learning new things, as Linux is full of them. Many of the ways of Windows that you are accustomed to simply don’t apply in the Linux world, and some argue that that’s because Windows has them wrong. Whether that’s true remains to be seen, but the fact is that even trying out Linux is going to expose you to a completely new way of doing things.

With that in mind, I’ll make the following suggestions and comments.

Regardless of your experience or comfort level with computers, Ubuntu is a great first choice. You can try it out directly from CD without having to install anything on your computer. If you decide Ubuntu is for you, then you can install it later. Knoppix also lets you run Linux from a CD without installing anything, but the installation process is a little more complicated, if you do choose to install it.

If you’re fairly comfortable with computers, and you foresee using Linux for business or to “get things done,” then check out Fedora Core and CentOS. While these don’t offer a live CD option, they do closely track Red Hat’s enterprise offerings, which are what you would most likely see in a business setting. CentOS is a free version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and is considered a stable platform, while Fedora Core is the community-driven version on which it is based, and usually has more up-to-date software.

You should probably not try Debian, Slackware or Gentoo as your first Linux distribution if you have never used Linux before or are not extremely comfortable with digging yourself out of large holes. As you gain more experience with Linux, though, you may want to investigate these options.

In addition, as I said, there are hundreds of Linux distributions out there, most of which are highly specialized for particular circumstances. This means there’s a Linux for virtually every scenario. Distro Watch is updated daily with the release announcements for most known Linux distributions and is the best place to start if you are looking for a specialized Linux distribution.

If you’re already using Linux, which distribution did you try first? What did you like about it? What really annoyed you? Did you switch to another distribution later, and did it work out any better?