Ubuntu is a good choice.
One of the features about it that I really like is what I call the "desktop swap" feature. It's basically like an alt + tab of sorts, but instead of going through applications, you have 4 (I think) desktops to play with. So you can have a dev desktop, a gaming desktop, a correspondence desktop (email, doc writing, etc.). At least that's how I used it.
Also, just FYI, I set this up on a VM on had it up and running flawlessly in like 30 minutes. The only manual thing I had to set up was the NIC, but I have a feeling that was just because I was running it as a VM. Really great way to run the distro if you don't want to whipe your windows box outright, but want to try something new (or for testing!)
I've raised http://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/45439/what-to-do-with-which-linux-distro-for-my-old-pc-questions-of-super-user/47075#47075 to discuss creating a faq about linux distributions. Please add any comments you have. Thanks.
– Douglas Leeder – 2010-04-18T08:50:25.180this should have the subjective tag added – Hamish Downer – 2009-07-15T17:24:34.903
1Intelignet people != grandmas ??? What's wrong with you? – KovBal – 2009-07-16T16:54:51.393