I just moved over to Linux, so I don't know nearly as much as the Linux Geeks around her, but I have some experience that I can share.
I'm sure you know that navigating around in Windows is different than a Mac. The first Distro I tried was a lot like a Mac OS. I've been using Windows... there I go again. "Been using", as though I'm still shackled!
Anyway, the first distro I tried was a lot like a Mac. I was so used to my shackles I had a lot of trouble using it. I think it was Fedora, I can't say for sure. Navigating around Linux Mint is similar to Windows. It was easy for me to move over to LM because a lot of things feel familiar. That made it a lot easier for to ditch the Giant. As Brickwizard said, it might be easier to start out with something that feels familiar. There are a lot of things that are different in Linux. Using something that feels familiar makes it easier to things that are a lot different.
I followed Brickwizards installation article to a "T" on the first lap top. Everything was great, so I would definitely follow his wisdom. The first one has a failing drive.
I recently learned , at least sometimes it may be necessary to format the hard drive before installing Linux. Last Option (the laptop I'm using) seems to have some issues related to formatting. I do think there is more to it than formatting. This laptop was already having some problems, a bad sector. I'm not knowledgeable enough about formatting a drive with a bad sector, where to start etc. IMO it's worth keeping that in the back of your head if you have any issues, specially if your hard drive is older.