New users are better to get Fedora and use Livna, Freshrpms, DAG and Fedora apt repositories. Install synaptic and have a ball point-n-clicking your way to more then 3,000+ applications.
That's the best suggestion I ever came across in this list for new users. I learned the same thing the hard way. But apt + synaptic with Freshrpms+DAG as backend rocks.
Raghu.
