Sometimes the trouble is that they try to make it too easy to use and it gets in the way of actually getting things done.
Fedora is a good choice to start off with. So is Mandrake or Suse.
Something like debian is designed to "just work". It does most of the configuration thru the package manager, then you do most of the advanced configuration thru simply editing text files. However it's a fairly painfull distro to use with laptops, since laptops are difficult and debian tends to use old packages that don't include the latest versions of system programs you need to get things done.
If you want something different maybe even check out Gentoo. The installation can be formidable to newbies, but it often helps people figure stuff out.
You see most system wide configuration tools are located in the /etc/ folder. That is pretty much everything. For instance if you want to modify the boot loader you simply fire up your favorite text editor and edit /etc/lilo.conf (if you use lilo). Then you just make the changes manually, which is perfectly 100% safe way to do things in linux. (as long as you make backups of config files)(also unless you formated or deleted something, you can always boot up with a cdrom like knoppix or trinity and then mount the harddrive and re-edit or replace the config files that got messed up. Also using the chroot command you can "change root" directory to you mounted harddrive and run programs almost as if you are booted up from that harddrive. So not all is lost if you can't boot up, it's usually possible to recover and fix any problems)
The hard part, of course, is remembering what each file does and it's syntax. There are plenty of docs out there to help you, google is a nice tool. Also vivisimo is a new one that makes it easy to find stuff. Command line is very usefull to at least be familar with. Since it pretty much "just works" and you can get things done even if everything else is messed up.
Think of internet search engines as you "help menu" for linux. Google even has some advanced settings that search just for linux-related stuff.
I suggest fedora or mandrake. And check out their help forums, since they are often usefull for figuring out distro-specific tools and oddities that you may not be able to find easily in a general internet search. Generally if you had a problem then problably other people have to and it maybe they figured it out for you in advance.
Oh, and user specific configs are found in hidden files in you home directory. They have a "." before the name which makes them "hidden". At a command line prompt do a "ls -l" to see all of them. You generally don't mess with these, its easier just to let the desktop manager or program itself manage them. If a program geeks out, then delete it's .filename directory or file and it's config will be regenerated next time you start it up, of course you loose any settings in it. (BTW in a bash shell command line enviroment the ~ character is the shortcut for you home folder, so you can go like this: "cd ~" to go home.)
If you go to that linux laptop site, see if you can find a entry that matches your laptop and see what OS and things they did to get things working. Laptops are kinda hard, but if you lucky someone else already did most of the hard work for you.
also there are repositories of howtos and stuff in websites like "the linux documentation project" (www.tldp.org) and if you using fedora check out the redhat 9.0 documentation on redhat's website since they are so similar, and mandrake has quick start and user documentation on it's website. Also there are a veriaty of reference books out their, but some are much better then others and some kinda suck. Most big bookstores have a section dedicated to using linux and computers in general, but the internet is the fastest way to find information. You have to watch the dates on stuff, because often their will be different versions of the same docs and you want the latest versions.
Fedora is a good choice to start off with. So is Mandrake or Suse.
Something like debian is designed to "just work". It does most of the configuration thru the package manager, then you do most of the advanced configuration thru simply editing text files. However it's a fairly painfull distro to use with laptops, since laptops are difficult and debian tends to use old packages that don't include the latest versions of system programs you need to get things done.
If you want something different maybe even check out Gentoo. The installation can be formidable to newbies, but it often helps people figure stuff out.
You see most system wide configuration tools are located in the /etc/ folder. That is pretty much everything. For instance if you want to modify the boot loader you simply fire up your favorite text editor and edit /etc/lilo.conf (if you use lilo). Then you just make the changes manually, which is perfectly 100% safe way to do things in linux. (as long as you make backups of config files)(also unless you formated or deleted something, you can always boot up with a cdrom like knoppix or trinity and then mount the harddrive and re-edit or replace the config files that got messed up. Also using the chroot command you can "change root" directory to you mounted harddrive and run programs almost as if you are booted up from that harddrive. So not all is lost if you can't boot up, it's usually possible to recover and fix any problems)
The hard part, of course, is remembering what each file does and it's syntax. There are plenty of docs out there to help you, google is a nice tool. Also vivisimo is a new one that makes it easy to find stuff. Command line is very usefull to at least be familar with. Since it pretty much "just works" and you can get things done even if everything else is messed up.
Think of internet search engines as you "help menu" for linux. Google even has some advanced settings that search just for linux-related stuff.
I suggest fedora or mandrake. And check out their help forums, since they are often usefull for figuring out distro-specific tools and oddities that you may not be able to find easily in a general internet search. Generally if you had a problem then problably other people have to and it maybe they figured it out for you in advance.
Oh, and user specific configs are found in hidden files in you home directory. They have a "." before the name which makes them "hidden". At a command line prompt do a "ls -l" to see all of them. You generally don't mess with these, its easier just to let the desktop manager or program itself manage them. If a program geeks out, then delete it's .filename directory or file and it's config will be regenerated next time you start it up, of course you loose any settings in it. (BTW in a bash shell command line enviroment the ~ character is the shortcut for you home folder, so you can go like this: "cd ~" to go home.)
If you go to that linux laptop site, see if you can find a entry that matches your laptop and see what OS and things they did to get things working. Laptops are kinda hard, but if you lucky someone else already did most of the hard work for you.
also there are repositories of howtos and stuff in websites like "the linux documentation project" (www.tldp.org) and if you using fedora check out the redhat 9.0 documentation on redhat's website since they are so similar, and mandrake has quick start and user documentation on it's website. Also there are a veriaty of reference books out their, but some are much better then others and some kinda suck. Most big bookstores have a section dedicated to using linux and computers in general, but the internet is the fastest way to find information. You have to watch the dates on stuff, because often their will be different versions of the same docs and you want the latest versions.
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