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Interesting page but maybe overwhelming to newbies. How is a beginner going to select a distribution from that huge list? choosing 'beginner' distros still leaves you with a long list of options, and no other easy means of comparing between them.

Let alone how to figure out which desktop environment to choose from...

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IMHO a beginner has very few choicie. He should choose ubuntu. Fedora is about as good as ubuntu for beginners, but it is more difficult to find other users to get help. A beginner may choose fedora if he is using redhat at work and could get some directions from IT staff. The variants of ubuntu introduce some confusion and do not give much benefit in return. The other distributions do not fit beginners (either lack of polish or lack of users or both).

I think Mint is a better choice than ubuntu; out of the box it resembles windows, with a menu button in the lower left corner and a window list in the bottom.

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