Welcome to Linux! First off, just to alleviate any confusion, the different kinds of Linux are called “distributions”, or “distros” for short. There are literally hundreds of distros, and which one you choose is largely up to personal preference. Ubuntu, my distro of choice, is the most popular. If you want all of your hardware to work right out of the box, Ubuntu is probably your best bet. However, Ubuntu has all sorts of off-shoots that are derived from it. Ubuntu itself uses the GNOME desktop environment (you’ll learn all about this stuff eventually). GNOME is one of the two most popular DE’s, the other being KDE. There is a Ubuntu off-shoot called Kubuntu that uses KDE instead of GNOME. I would do a little research to see which you prefer. There is also Xubuntu, which uses XFCE, Ubuntu Studio, which is aimed at multimedia production, Ubuntu Netbook Remix, which is designed for tiny netbook screens, and a few others. Linux Mint is a separate distro built from Ubuntu that uses a slightly modified version of GNOME and some customized applications. Regardless of which one you choose, you’re still getting essentially the same operating system with all of the same great software. No matter what you choose, you’re going to be able to customize it to look any way you wish. If you use GNOME, you can go to www.gnome-look.org to find all sorts of themes and gadgets. There are similar sites for KDE, XFCE, etc. But you’re not just limited to Ubuntu and it’s derivatives. There are tons of other distros out there that use completely different package managers. I would recommend just doing a little bit of research. Feel free to ask any questions.