I've dabbled with Linux since 1999, beginning with Red Hat 5.2.  I had too many issues with various distros up until about 2006, when I decided to try Ubuntu.  That was my first distro that for me, had more pros than cons, and it has gradually improved every year.

Since 2006, I've tried about 8-10 different distros, including Ubuntu, Mint, Puppy, OpenSuse, Fedora, Mandriva, Debian and Zenwalk.

Zenwalk and Mint have become my primaries for now.

I'm a HUGE proponent of a simplified, user friendly Linux desktop distro.  There's still a long way to go, regardless of the distro being used, but Linux has also come a long way.

I believe that a distro can be both newbie friendly and Mac-like, while at the same time offering veterans and hackers maximum power, with options to switch interfaces, menus and apps to 'veteran mode' with the click of a mouse.  It can be done; after all, it's just code!