My opinion only. Don't crucify me!

OpenSuSE 12.1 or Ubuntu (latest). I would not even mess with RedHat. It is for advance users. No user friendly tools.

Ubuntu uses Debian and SuSE mostly uses rpm. It has the install zypper which is very powerful. Another difference SuSE comes with both KDE & GNOME. You can choose either or both. I am not a big fan of the latest KDE or GNOME (too fancy) so I changed my Ubuntu and OpenSuSE desktop window manager to XFCE.

SuSE has YaST that will make all your configuration very easy. No need to figure out the command lines. It makes beginner's life much easier. Ubuntu, tools are not that great (my opinion)

Install XRDP and you can RDP to your Linux Desktop if running as a VM.

I have 2 machines. OneI has Ubuntu. My main machine has OpenSuSE and Windows installed under Xen. No need to mess with VMWare. I have Windows VM RDP connected on one of my 4 Linux desktops screens. I just switch to it when (rarely) I need Windows.

My office pc is Redhat enterprise desktop and it is not even comparable to SuSE or Ubuntu. No good.