If you want usability, you need Ubuntu. The fact that the company behind it are funded by a millionaire means they are dedicated to providing a great OS that is easy to use. It's perfect for beginners so maybe you'd like to expand on your 5/10 score? What did you find wrong with it / what confused you about it?
I also prefer the Gnome desktop over KDE, simply because KDE is such a resource hog, and I find it tries too hard. Gnome + Compiz makes any system shiny! Also, a lot of people have been complaining about KDE4 because the devs rewrote the core and it is full of bugs. My friend was once a hardcore KDE user who kept on pressuring me to try KDE 4.1, and a few days ago we met up and he's temporarily "downgraded" to the stable Gnome. Same goes for Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, who used to be a KDE fan and who spoke you against Gnome.
So I started out on Ubuntu, then I tried out Linux Mint (an Ubuntu based system), then Fedora. I have a love/hate relationship with Fedora. I installed version 7 and found it ok to use, but then all versions since then have just been so much more confusing. The package management system is by far the worst since you are bombarded with a ton of information in no sensible format. It also seems to lack pretty much any of the configuration options that has made Ubuntu so popular. After a year with Ubuntu, I decided I knew enough about the GNU/Linux OS that I would install Gentoo, and I wouldn't use anything else.
If you know what you are doing, Gentoo is worth the 24 hour install
It's pretty much compiling the system from scratch to your specific needs. You choose the kernel options, which modules to build, which types of programs, etc. The Gentoo documentation install guide is very useful, and it goes through everything you need to do to get a good install. Since the install is text based, I prefer to boot into an Ubuntu live cd and install Gentoo through a terminal there.
I'd also like to add to the list:
GRUB: 10/10 - Awesome boot manager. No bugs that I've ever found, and very easy to configure.
I also prefer the Gnome desktop over KDE, simply because KDE is such a resource hog, and I find it tries too hard. Gnome + Compiz makes any system shiny! Also, a lot of people have been complaining about KDE4 because the devs rewrote the core and it is full of bugs. My friend was once a hardcore KDE user who kept on pressuring me to try KDE 4.1, and a few days ago we met up and he's temporarily "downgraded" to the stable Gnome. Same goes for Linus Torvalds, the creator of the Linux kernel, who used to be a KDE fan and who spoke you against Gnome.
So I started out on Ubuntu, then I tried out Linux Mint (an Ubuntu based system), then Fedora. I have a love/hate relationship with Fedora. I installed version 7 and found it ok to use, but then all versions since then have just been so much more confusing. The package management system is by far the worst since you are bombarded with a ton of information in no sensible format. It also seems to lack pretty much any of the configuration options that has made Ubuntu so popular. After a year with Ubuntu, I decided I knew enough about the GNU/Linux OS that I would install Gentoo, and I wouldn't use anything else.
If you know what you are doing, Gentoo is worth the 24 hour install
It's pretty much compiling the system from scratch to your specific needs. You choose the kernel options, which modules to build, which types of programs, etc. The Gentoo documentation install guide is very useful, and it goes through everything you need to do to get a good install. Since the install is text based, I prefer to boot into an Ubuntu live cd and install Gentoo through a terminal there. I'd also like to add to the list:
GRUB: 10/10 - Awesome boot manager. No bugs that I've ever found, and very easy to configure.
