of the choices raub gave you, i'd go with ubuntu.
the install is very easy; the install disc is a live cd, so you get to see and play around with the environment you're installing on your harddrive before you actually go ahead and install it. you're basically inside a working ubuntu environment, just like you'll install, while you're installing. i feel like i explained that really poorly
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here is a screenshot tour of ubuntu)
as for applications.. it comes with firefox, a word processing suite called openoffice, an email/organizer app called evolution, and some media playing programs (however, out-of-the-box, there isn't support for non-free media types, but that can be fixed easily).
ubuntu has a graphical package manager called synaptic which makes it easy for you to install new programs, because you can just do a search for a certain type of program, and then click install. it will do the rest for you. here's a link to the ubuntu desktop guide
https://help.ubuntu.com/6.10/ubuntu/...e/C/index.html; it can walk you through all the basics.