Are you looking to learn about operating systems, or are you more interested in current linux desktops? If you want current Linux Desktop distros try both Ubun

Are you looking to learn about operating systems, or are you more interested in current linux desktops? If you want current Linux Desktop distros try both Ubuntu and Fedora and whichever one you feel more comfortable with will work. If you're more interested in going deep under the hood with a server operating system buy a copy of Unix in a Nutshell and Unix Power Tools (O'Reilly) and get a copy of FreeeBSD or Gentoo.