On page Win2Lin, Eric B asks for suggestions on a suitable distro.
A Linux distribution (or distro) is simply a collection of programs that have been tested to work together and selected for a target audience. The audience might want a rock solid server, an easy to learn distro, a lean subset for a small computer (eg: netbook) or a toolkit for learning about or testing and developing bleeding edge software.
Programs from one distro can usually be run on a different one but since many programs require a toolkit or other programs to already be installed, it might save you some trouble if the distro has these installed by default.
There are numerous distributions. Selecting one depends on what you need it to do:
Here are some notes on some major distros and why you might select one of them:
Here are some other articles that might help:
A search like this will find more information:
http://www.google.ca/linux?hl=en&q=how+to+select+a+linux+distro&btnG=Search&meta=