Planning to dive into *nix world ! There are so many options available…unix, fedora linux, red hat linux, freebsd, suse, solaris and countless others ! Confused ? I would suggest you to start with Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a free debian-derived linux based operating system. It is good for beginners because it has sophisticated GUI tools to handles most of our needs.
First big thing, Ubuntu fits in a single CD. Basic kernel needs only ~700 MB of space on CDs. Everything else can be installed manually after the OS has been installed.
It gives you an option of partitioning the disk while installing. Even if you are opting for a dual-boot system, you don’t have a separate logical disk to install another operating system (ubuntu in our case), you can easily resize your physical hard disk using ubuntu and install it without loosing your windows or any other operating system for that matter.
The installation CD is also available as a live CD. You can start working even before you install the operating system.
One of the biggest problem newbies face with *nix environment is installing software packages. The biggest pain is resolving dependencies and installing them before you can install the actual package. Ubuntu has got a nice GUI based package manager called ‘Synaptic’ which can handle dependencies pretty well too.
The next problem arises when you want to listen or watch songs/movies (what else you expect newbies to do). You will die solving the audio/video related problems. Ubuntu has got nice inbuilt audio player and it’s very easy to install amarok and vlc players using synaptic or even command line.
Updating packages is quick and automatic.
You can enable fancy visual effects.
Windows migration tool – The new migration tool recognises Internet Explorer favorites, Firefox bookmarks, desktop wallpaper, AOL IM contacts, Yahoo IM contacts and imports them in Ubuntu. This offers easier and faster migration for new users of Ubuntu and individuals wanting to run a dual partition. In addition to single accounts, you can migrate several users’ settings in Ubuntu automatically.
It has got good support for networking services including wi-fi networks. Development tools are very well supported.
Installation of third party softwares and plug-ins like Flash, java etc has been made very easy by synaptic.
Sudoku is in-built as a game 
So here is your copy to starting out in *nix world….
