i'm running ubuntu right now, and it's good. the install is simple, and like raub mentioned, there's only one cd for it, so that's a bonus. here's the set of
screens for installation and configuration of the latest version of ubuntu ("hoary").
i figure that within a few weeks, i'll be going back to
gentoo, which is a great linux distro (it's been a while since i've had it installed). if you're interested in installing gentoo, be sure to read the gentoo manual (or handbook or whatever they call it), because even the simplest form of installation--a stage 3 install--is pretty do-it-yourself... it just sets up the more difficult things for you.
also, my laptop is running suse 9.2 right now, and it's pretty decent. i also don't like kde, but it seems to work just fine. and i've heard that in future versions, suse is going to be going with gnome instead of kde, so maybe 9.3 will install gnome by default, and work with it properly.. but in any case, a REAL man uses the tab window manager. :P