Didn't know there's such board around. hehe. Distro war has been going on for ages guys. No point arguing here, my tips for newbies. In order to get used to linux environment, you'll need:

1)Patience
2)Make google.com your browser's home page.

So to start, you will need to keep your windows/other familiar os partition, in case your first linux installation doesn't work out. This is what we call "Dual Boot". Dual boot is handled by Linux programs, namely GRUB, or LILO, distro dependent. Google for it you will get countless of how-tos.

Most of the distros today make use of the Internet greatly. So you don't really have to get all the ISOs they publish(some simply go over 10 cds). My personal opinion here, you are better off starting with some 1CD installable distros, first choice would be ubuntu, or kunbutu. More or less the same, Only the softwares preinstalled are different.

By nature, most of the pc users today want something GUI, easy to use. Eventually in Linux, you're going to stuck with KDE/Gnome/xfce or any other infamous project. I'm a heavy KDE user myself.

So assume that your desktop is up, you'll have to do some configs, to make use of all of your hardwares like in windows. These are some problems I've dealt with.

1)sound. the only driver you will need is ALSA. Works with common pci/onboard sound cards. You might need to set it default in different applications but that's uncommon, everything should be preconfigured.

2)Display. Your distro will have x-windows installed for you. Xorg is the most commonly used nowadays. In xorg there will be display drivers ready for nvidia/ati cards, and other common cards of course. Those might not be your choice because generic drivers can't support screen resolutions larger than 1024X768. You need your distro propriety driver(often available in your distro software repository). Or you can just go to manufacturers' sites for linux driver. I personally play 3d games in Linux, (quake,second life, cs), so a proper driver is crucial.

These should make your Linux more or less in an usable stage. Then you need to play your favorite music. Too bad there's no winamp! Get, xmms/amarok, these will play most of your music media files. For video, Xine is your best choice. Remember to get the w32codec, that enables you to play most of the vid formats.

Other common softwares.
browser - firefox
msg-er - Gaim(this takes care of msn,icq,yahoo etc)
irc - xchat
bt - azureus
emule - amule
skype - skype linux
office suite - openoffice.org
image editing- gimp
email - thunderbird

Oh yes, get a GUI packages manager like synaptic, aptitude. I can write for days about linux, but I'm afraid this is all i can contribute for tonight. Check out my blog if you want some ideas on Debian, my only OS for life.