Well I'm a semi-newbie with Linux but I have used it about a good year or so. Most may say that RedHat is one of the popular one's used by many and I hear that Mandrake is good for first timers to use. Mandrake is based on RH sources I guess.
My first Linux installation was Caldera's Openlinux 1.2 and it was a good one for me being new to linux, but the kernel was sorta outdated, but I still have it installed on a P133 box. I'm currently running Mandrake 7.1 now on a PII-300 system. One good point about linux is you get server and workstation with most of them and all development also.
You can goto
http://www.cheapbytes.com and buy as many different brands of linux as you like for little of nothing plus shipping cost. Around $1.99 on up.
Go for it.