Why exactly do you recommend those distros?
I have used Ubuntu and Fedora in the past. Out of these two I recommend Ubuntu now that it has more user-friendly GUI called Unity. Also, Ubuntu has a massive user support community and forum where you can find the solution to ANY noob problems.
Uh, I wouldn't recommend linux for gaming if that's what you want to do. Sure, more games are coming to linux since Steam has arrived but Wine and PlayonLinux don't always work flawlessly. But if you are dead set, then I recommend you go ahead with it. The first thing you want to do is install graphics driver. I think most distros come preinstalled with Nouevau(?) drivers, which are open source, but you will get the best performance with proprietary drivers obviously. Depending on what you have green or red, just go to their website and download the drivers. If you run into problems head onto the forums and do a quick search to find answers. You may want to start with "how to disable x11" because that's normally the first problem. Installing flash shouldn't be a big problem. You can do it by going to the Software Centre, if you are on ubuntu, and searching for flash. After that it's only a couple of mouseclicks. good luck
I have used ubuntu 12.04 - 13.04 and fedora 18 and 19. If your looking for something with a simple style and easy to learn i would go with ubuntu becuase i feel that its the most user friendly as well as being one of the most used linux distros and itscompatible with alot of programs. I am on fedora now which is a little bit diffrent than ubuntu where as when your installing things you will have to to yum install if you dont go through the software tool. i feel that fedora has a little bit more of a learning curve but if you can push through that it is really worth it.
Grow some balls and start with slackware. Do it old school. Read the manuals. Learn something. Done. LOL!
suse used to be a good introduction into linux because of yast and it's package management, and extremely well known for the ease of linux development. novell bought out suse and now there is an opensuse variation.. opensuse initially sucked but it is getting better with each release.. opensuse 12.3 is doing really well, if you haven't looked into check it out.. my preference is freebsd.
I wouldn't recommend ubuntu or any of the other super friendly distros since you will most likely not become much more then a newbie using those distros. I would recomend manjaro linux since it comes with built in hardware detection which will help you acquire drivers and also comes with a bunch of preinstalled programs. even though it aims to be user friendly it is based on arch linux wich is one of the less user friendly distros wich hopefully will make you more than just a newbie.
Start with Ubuntu 14.04 inside VirtualBox. Use Guest Additions with your VMs. You can easily try multiple distros this route until you find one you like. ;)
Try Ubuntu or Mint both Debian based. You might want to give them a shot in virtual box first just to familiarize your self with them. I personal like the gnome 3 desktop or xfce.
Settings to change is very dependent on the desktop environment you pick so that might need to be separate.
Once you install your OS the first thing you will need to do is make sure your firewall is on. Then update you OS.
As for drivers this will be probably the most difficult because its needs to be done right or it could render your os unusable. I prefer using the terminal and aptitude to install the nvidia drive rather than the gui. You can get a more up to date version that way.
I personally install google chrome so I dont deal with flash that often usually in Ubuntu its with restricted extras.
The terminal is a wonderous thing it can allow you to update your os install new packages costomize your configs just with a line of code and so much more but there is a learning curve so take your time with it.
applications I usually install
google Chrome
MPV (media palyer ) "VLC is another good one"
htop (terminal based system monitor)
conky (sytem monitor)
Deluge (torrent client)
LibreOffice (office suit usally comes installed)
Steam (games)
Rythombox (music palyer)
Lightworks (video editor there is a free verison)
As for games that I got to work on playonlinux the only one that I manged to get working was Skyrim. But Steam for linux has a pretty decent library of games now so you might want to give that a look
this is a two year old thread op got his answer