Plain Ubuntu still works best if one wants to get (re-)accustomed to it.

With Ubuntu in mind, you may want to take a look at the 10.04 LTS version before the latest one as well.

Ubuntu can be run as a live CD and installation these days is really simple. If the last time you looked at Linux was 6 years ago you will likely be surprised at how easy it is now.

Hey thanks very much for the replies! I saw Ubuntu on Amazon for about $20 so I think I will go for that.

Its funny, I was assuming I would go ahead and order Red Hat Professional 8.0 (because it was the most expensive), until I noticed a user review that advised that the version shown was nearly ten years old and was no longer supported, it was also selling for $99.99...

So I will take on Ubuntu and tinkering with that will have to count as my summer holidays!

Confused. Why are you going to buy linux?

http://www.ubuntu.com/download/ubuntu/download

Lol, so I just have to download it? Wow, I'm shocked that I hadnt already hit the credit card and ordered, thats how these things normally work.

Thanks for the link KnivesOut! I will download that tomorrow and start experimenting. I had a feeling videosift would be a good place to ask!

I agree with @Croccydile, you may want to avoid the latest version of Ubuntu, it uses a lot of new systems and is known to be pretty buggy. I'm currently using 10.10 for full-time production use.

You may also want to have a look at Mint -- it's based on Ubuntu but has some nice refinements.

I gotta say, I like the new Ubuntu Unity desktop in 11.04, but it's true that theres some room for improvements.

You mention a job interview so, assuming you're talking an IT job, I'd recommend acquainting yourself with one each of the main parent distros.

Ubuntu is as good as anything for basic familiarity with Debian.

Rather than blow the cash on Red Hat, download CentOS which is built from RHEL repositories.

For familiarity with traditional Unixes, try a copy of FreeBSD.

If your goal is to learn Linux skills that will be valuable in the workforce, then I would select CentOS. A lot of companies use Red Hat for the support they offer and as CentOS is just a rebuild of Red Hat, you will be learning the exact distro that you will probably be using/supporting.

Ubuntu has a large user community and the desktop version has come a long way since it was introduced. There are several versions of Ubuntu that are customized for very specific needs and updates seem to be coming on a regular basis now.

This is a website that explains the ever so subtle differences in the Linux distibutions.

http://distrowatch.com/

I don't know what kind of computer you will be installing Linux on but I have come to love VirtualBox. Installing Linux in a virtual environment is awesome if you are like me and want to try out several versions but don't want to dedicate a full computer to the task.

http://www.virtualbox.org/

I also am still learning so let me know if you have any questions and I will try to help.

Good Luck!

second vote for centos, which we are switching to and migrating off hundreds of RHEL servers