Need help choosing a distro

[Gangstrocity]

Hello everyone. I have never run linux before, so I have very minimal knowledge as to how everything works. I have been using computers for years, and I work in IT, but I have avoided Linux up to this point. With the recent changes in Windows 8, in addition to the fact that my favorite game developer is developing for linux now, I have decided I want to start making the switch over to linux. I play a lot of PC games, and I understand that not everyone will start developing for linux, so I plan to dual boot.

Can you guys give me some suggestions as to which distro I should use. The only request is that I need something that gives me full control. I don't want to be locked out of anything.

[OldSmoky2]

Linux Mint is generally regarded as the most newbie-friendly. It installs very easily and includes multimedia codecs. You can try it Live without installing it to see how it works (as you can with many others). The Cinnamon version of Mint is probably the most popular. Check out distrowatch.com, where you can look at different Linux distributions and see recent reviews of many of them.

[netwar]

I agree with smoky2 mint would probably be the easiest to migrate to, some may say ubuntu but it isnt super windows like and is a little clunky at times.

[pane-free]

+1