Guys, I've tried to install ubuntu (desktop and notebook ed) on my laptop and unortunately I have to say that as despite the fact that installation process supposed to be easy I couldn't finish installation of this system - didn't detect my keyboard or rather lost my keyboard as soon as I tried to switch on/off pad on my laptop. After I've discovered that, I started all over again (this time without touching my laptop's pad during installation) and yes, eventually it get to the end of installation.

Unfortunately, when I've tried to switch my pad (sometimes I just do not want to use a mouse) the whole system froze. So I had to restart it with the power button and this time I didn't touch pad at all, plugged in mouse and tried to rearrange taskbars according to my liking (all taskbars on the top side of the screen and auto-hide on) and I gave up. It is so unfinished that I just can't be bothered to use it.

I would like to have one linux system on my machine so I started googling and most of the links are to either ubuntu (which I just do not want to touch for now) and suse or commercial versions of linux. I do not really mind paying for something (and having experience with ubuntu I'd rather pay and have something pro then get it free and discover that it's unusable).

So could someone please provide short list of linux distros which would be appropriate for a beginner, and I don't mind paying for it, I just want it to be a professional product.