No need to worry. My suggestion is to begin with a straightforward and user-friendly Linux distribution. Once you become comfortable with the command-line interface and other functions, you can switch to a more advanced distribution. Personally, I utilize the Ubuntu LTS desktop as my primary operating system for completing my tasks. As I am occupied with work, I don't have much time to experiment with the latest technologies. However, your experience may differ.
@nixCraft I remember my first #ArchLinux install attempt. Fresh off of Ubuntu, I heard it was a big deal. Got an ISO, launched it and... terminal... with no network connection. I wish someone had told me there was an #ArchWiki that I should have open on another machine that already has a web browser and internet connection.
I wonder if anyone has thought about shipping the wiki on install ISO's...
@zachdecook @nixCraft we contemplated that for a while, but it was quite large and never properly up-to-date.
Instead there's now a helper to launch the wiki in a terminal web browser :)
@zachdecook @nixCraft oh, and the network setup should work out of the box (unless you use WiFI or something more involved such as e.g. a USB modem).
@zachdecook @nixCraft Wireless works fine though (wpa_supplicant) and the arch wiki is perfectly readable in w3m / lynx. There's no point in going for anything other than this or a graphical / ncurses guided installer.