Hello blueriver649 - LinuxQuestions.org is a good all-around forum for Linux users. I find that a lot of my Google searches end up there, and they try to help everyone regardless of which Linux distro they're using. They don't seem to be biased or prejudiced towards one Linux OS vs. another. But when it comes to finding help with a specific Linux distro, such as Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, etc., then I recommend joining the user forum that's affiliated with the distro. Tip: I use Linux Mint myself. But I find that if I preface my Google searches with "ubuntu", I find a lot better information than if I use "linux mint". I guess it's because Ubuntu has been around a bit longer and has a bigger user base than Linux Mint.
Don't feel bad, we all were there at some point (some of us still are!). My advice is, forget about trying another distro right away. Focus on learning stuff first (it's not boring I promise). Start to look for linux newbie sites, sites that address the basic knowledge you should have, that way you'll know what xfce and kde are (among others). Basically just read everything. Some people might give you other sites, I personally recommend Wikipedia for the following reason. Let's say you Wiki xfce, you start reading, then in the first line it says that xfce is a desktop environment, and right there you have your first new term 'desktop environment', you click on it, and it takes you to another page that will clear up what a desktop environment is, from there you might go to a comparison chart of different desktop environments, and so on and so forth. Before you know it you will have a general understanding about the difference between xfce, kde, gnome, etc., and even you might start to like one over the other, or at least now you'll know which one you want to try next, maybe a distro based on lxde for that old laptop you have, who knows. You'll notice after a few days that you know a lot more than you thought, enough to venture into new distros, try to do something using commands, download software, use office apps, etc. The amount of information out there is massive, and it can be intimidating at first, but it's not that bad, and once you start reading you'll notice how the next thing you learn about makes more sense now because you have some background information.
My sentiments, already left Mountain View now its time to start learning, & put some distance from billy boy.
The Linux community in these forums (not here) kind of sucks in my opinion. Everyone is extremely selfish and doesn't care about anyone else or anything that they don't use. In general they are against a lot of things that could improve the popularity of the OS because nobody cares about the market share or the features that they don't use. This doesn't apply to this forum because it is more focused towards helping new users and getting new people into Linux rather than an advanced discussion of hardcore users.
forum is ok but if you need linux help, open up an irc client, connect to freenode server, do a channel list and go into general linux channel or your distros channel, or any related distro channel, you'll usually find couple hundred of geeks hanging out there
I second all of that . Mint will give a bit of a "comfort zone " to long-time Windows users , and Ubuntu will probably make Apple users feel more at home. As far as desktop preferences go ..... " The world is your lobster " . Check out this site :- Hybryde it's not intended to be used as a distro that you actually install and use . More like a "tasting menu" , to allow fast switching between all the major Linux desktops ... live , and do a bit of road-testing with each one , before deciding which distro to download and run with . Pretty cool really , but it's a bit of a chunk to download at 1.7 GB . Find out more here :- distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=hybryde