Use slackware! I highly reccomend it. Ubuntu seemingly falls short on being too user friendly, and installs much like windows (dodnt forget your "admin" pass ). I would suggest getting command line savy, as it is often much easier than navigating gui to say, set your hardware or software clocks.

Anywho, on gnome vs kde, I suggest KDE by far. KDE is more windowesque imo, and it is very much less processor intensive. If you plan on using ubuntu, and you wish to use KDE, simply download Kubuntu. If you are a christian, there is a christian version of ubuntu out there somewhere as well.

Bipper