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#11
The advanced user or those who work often in the commercial office environment with Novell and Oracle for example along with general word processing become quite familar with the UNIX platform without necessarily being the one who maintains servers, network connections, OS repair, and the like. They simply use the softwares.
As for Fedora as well as Mandriva, SUSe, and some others those are server type distros to start with while other smaller distros like ubuntu, Knoppix, Puppy, kubuntu, Zenwalk are geared more for the desktop user with options for the KDE, Gnome, and other desktops as well as the various packages you can install separately there.
Linus isn't impossible to learn but takes some getting used to the difference in commands when you need to open up a console. The latest releases for the smaller ones mentioned there plus a few others have simplied things once you grow accustomed to the different layout having a choice of buttons for different menus rather then one central Start orb that brings up various items in plain view as well as the All Programs, search, Run lines as well.
Lightweight on system resources has always been one thing that kept Linux popular since you can a small distro on just about any old boat anchor while each newer version of Windows will require some form of upgrade. Unlike MS however you don't have one central point to go for updates and support.
Each distro takes you to an entirely different place for the new release, documentation, support! "Now where do I go?" is the typical confusion the novice will face. You can see where it gained the nickname "Geek's OS"!