I had been away from Linux for several years (redhat 7 was my last), and the folks here pointed me to Mandrake (10.1 official), and I LOVE IT! It is very easy to set up and configure, but still has GREAT shell support, and all of the true linux stuff is right there, so while you have your "windows-like" shell, you still get the power of true Linux. I recommend it completely to anyone wanting to jump into Linux that does not have a ton of experience with it, but does not want to be limited by thier distro either.