Linux distro recs?

[blnchflr]

I've been using Ubuntu as my primary OS since May last year, and while I'm extremely happy with it, I would like to become more Linux-savvy.

I'm looking for another newbie-friendly/newbie-semi-friendly distro to dual-boot with Ubuntu, to see what the differences are, etc. - any recs?

(P.S. I've been giving OpenSolaris - I know it's not Linux - a couple of goes over the last weeks, but in the end, I just could not get it to play nice with Ubuntu, so I gave it up. Very shiny OS, though!)

Comments

[blnchflr]

Installing from scratch sounds scary, but I get how it would teach me things I'd actually like to know, like what is needed to run a system. It just seems so daunting, since at this point I don't know what is needed. But the Debian netinst sounds like the place to start, then.

(It also may be better than trying a completely distro in that after trying a couple of distros, I'm wondering if I aren't actually completely and utterly happy with Ubuntu and how it works.)

Thanks muchly for the advice!