What's the best linux distro to LEARN linux?

I would recommend Debian for someone who has programming experience. Its the thinking distro. and not putting myself down but its not so point and click as Ubuntu and Mint although both are loosely based on Debian http://www.debian.org/

The Perfect Desktop - Debian Lenny

http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desktop-debi...

LUg.

Well, any of them are good, but some of them do put a lot more between the user and the "machinery" in the background.

I would look at Debian, Gentoo, Arch or Slackware. Debian is the base system used in the Ubuntu family. Gentoo is a distro that requires a lot of building, since you create the installation from source files. Arch is very hands on.

Slackware is really one of my favorites distros. When you install it, it doesn't give you a glossy desktop on the first bootup: you get a command prompt. You have to learn how to create a user account (since the only account created in the install is root, and you DON'T want to work as root routinely). You have to learn how to do a lot of things to get Slack set up the way you want it.

I love it because I used it on server systems at past job assignments. You installed only what you wanted, and you could build the rest from source code.

You can get details about all the distros at this site:

http://www.distrowatch.com/

Some additional Links:

I would recommend Ubuntu for you.

Before using Ubuntu, I used Red Hat/Fedora.

I found Ubuntu to be much more manageable and easier to use.

Ubuntu also has a very very active community.

Besides, it is based on Debian, the GREAT.

Linux is a great OS.

I am sure you'll enjoy the ride regardless of the ditro. you choose.

To learn, you'll probably want a KDE environment (ok, that's just my preference) try openSUSE, or Ferodia, you could also try ubuntu, but that one comes with additional root limitations that you probably don't want, also by default it has a quiet boot, and looking at the boot log is interesting, especially if you want to learn what's happening.

You might want to take the time to install Gentoo. It customises *everything*, so it's hard to avoid learning about what you're doing during the installation. It's well suited to micromanagement which may be just what you're looking for.