Last month, Lindows.com began shipping version 4 of its consumer-focused LindowsOS Linux distribution. This edition has a lot to offer newbies, and some things for power users, too.
The $50 ($60 if you want physical media) LindowsOS starts users off with a Flash-based tutorial that describes, with sound and animation, the functions of all that comes on the desktop.
LindowsOS also has a couple of things to teach bigger-name Linux distributions. I was impressed by its handling of USB thumb drives. Most require some command-line fiddling to get going, but in LindowsOS, you plug one of these drives into a USB port, and an icon for the auto-mounted drive pops up on the desktop.
LindowsOS list price includes a one-year subscription to Lindows Click-N-Run Warehouse, which makes obtaining and installing Linux apps simple. For more information, check out www.lindows.com.