Arch Linux. Not as scary as you think.
Yes I'm a nerd. Yes I use Arch Linux. There is a somewhat unfair view that you have to be a programmer to use Linux, and that Arch Linux in particular is very difficult. Yes I happen to be a programmer, and it might be true that Linux may be particularly useful for programmers considering most distros come with a lot of editors and compilers and such. But it really is a really stable and powerful OS for anyone (that's not computer illiterate). If you want to just use your computer without having to thinking about it, you will probably use whatever Windows version your computer came shipped with, and not bother to install anything else. However if you actually want to Learn how to use Linux, Arch is a good choice, because it assumes you know how to use the command line during the install process. In other words the process of installing it forces you learn som basics of Linux (if you don't already know). Still it is not very difficult. You don't have to compile