I've tried several distributions and I also asked myself the very same question when I wanted to find out what everyone liked so much about Linux ..
The answer you will get from me has two paths you can choose ..
My favorite distributions of all times are Debian, ArchLinux, and Gentoo, although I really disliked Gentoo in the end when I left it, and there were several reasons to that!
Debian is really a great great system, not only for servers but also for workstations.. There is a reason why Ubuntu got so popular, mainly because it adopted their package-manager "apt-get" which lets you install packages trough an enormous index of good reputated completely open-source and free software, and Debian is very critical at bad licenses. The thing I do not like about Debian is that while they are good at modifying each software-package to fit together with the rest of the Debian system the packages tend to get a little to static, they simply make the choices for you sometimes, and also you will start with a few services (daemons) on even the most clean install you can make (for example inetd) and I like running services standalone and not trough inetd.
The thing I HATE HATE HATE about Ubuntu is that you can adopt one tutorial, howto or guide from Debian and expect it to work on Ubuntu because they like to asspowder their users with network managers and other useless gui's which could just utilize the great utilities of a standard debian installation to manage or change these configs. Also I hate that whatever you put in your USB-port is always recognized as a CAMERA when it's a standard USB Mass Storage-driver.. At least that was like it when I tried it last, and some of my friends tell me they've corrected that, but still it is NOT Debian, and it will never be, and I think they are stuck where they are now, although I really think they've attracted like 2-4% more Linux-users just because of their distribution so I keep my mouth shut, although I think it is much easier to use Debian for a Workstation system than Ubuntu..
ArchLinux I really saw for nothing when I first got a glimpse at it, but first after trying it I understand what really makes it so useful.. Pacman & ABS really works so good together that you will never talk about source-distributions or binary-distributions again (FreeBSD, Gentoo are source-distributions - Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu are not ..) cause you can use the best parts of both!!
ABS consists of alot of build-scripts for applications (The recipes for how your applications are compiled from source and turned into a binary which you can execute and run) this gives unlimited possibilities of tweaking, meanwhile still managed by pacman which you can compare to apt-get..
If you ask me, forget about starting on Linux on Mandriva, OpenSuSE, Ubuntu, Mint, PCLinuxOS or whatever these dists are called, these are all a full package of applications and managers for your system, kinda like Vista.. I hate them, honestly.. They twist your brain into thinking Linux is Windows, or is it? When I first started Linux in 2001, I was 11 years old, these days you had kernel 2.4 and you had to do SCSI-emulation to get burning to CD-R working, and sometimes you even had to configure and compile your own kernel just to add the capability or to get the last piece of hardware to work ! I learned alot from this, and did drive alot of people on IRC crazy asking stupid questions about Debian where I started, but I learned to do it the RIGHT way, and I learned to UTILIZE the functions and kernel of Linux, and that's how it should be .. Cause in the end, don't you ask yourself why do you want to make the switch? To learn more about systems, you do not learn more about systems by installing Ubuntu.. You learn more about crappy written wiki-pages and irritating work-arounds that worked so fine on Debian before they were ported to Ubuntu .. Instead learn to use man-pages and google, and you will find your way to the Linux-distribution of your choice when you first understand the underlying applications!
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