This week, after reading about the passport software cr*p that Microsoft has implemented into their new Windows XP OS, I finally had it. I thought that this whole Microsoft business, though already a thorn in my side for a long time had finally gone too far.
I decided to no longer howl with the wolves in the forest and to bite the bullet : I'm gonna get me some Linux!
But I don't know the first thing about it. Which one should I get? Redhat, Suse or Mandrake? Which one is best for a beginner?

I'm craving to get back to times when I could tell my PC what to do (like in the DOS days), instead of it dictating me! (which is now the case).
I realise Linux is no walk in the park. I do know that it will take me several months if not years to learn how to use it at it's fullest potential. But I don't care. I want to.
Now, I'm not a total GUI point 'n click nut. I did work for more than five years with dos, so text-based OSes are not entirely new to me. I can say, in all modesty, that in those days I knew my OS practically to the bone. I knew how it worked, and I understood the way it thought. This is something I gave up on in windows a long time ago.
So don't tell me it's going to take me some time to learn, I know that. But I also know that once I get the hang of it, I will be able to do most things ten times faster than somebody who's using windows.
But please point me in the right direction. Which Linux distribution is best for a beginner?

ps. I also want to do this because I want to understand better the way the Empeg works.