Yes definitely give ubuntu a try. If it's stable on your hardware, then use it, and hope that the next release is the same. Dapper, edgy, feisty, are all great. Then gutsy came along and shat on everyone's parade. If ubuntu doesn't end up getting the job done for you, then check out pclinuxos. It's way better than ubuntu. The main reason why you'd want to go with ubuntu is it's debian based and has a lot more packages in it's repositories than redhat does (a lot more). More packages in the repo makes for an easier to use linux distro.
If you're really good at linux. Then i'd recommend giving the debian testing net-install a download. Alsa-base, xserver-xorg, x-window-system, and kde (or other desktop environment of choice with a desktop manager) is all the ****ing **** you need to download in order to having a working pure debian install. Apt-get install those 4 things and you have a successfully installed debian pure os. A pure debian testing net-install is what i'm using at the moment which really makes up for crappiness of ubuntu, lack of packages in pclinuxos repos, and the fact that backports with mepis sucks. Also, i'm not tied down to any major release schedule of debian. I'm on rolling-release. I install once, and upgrade into perpetuity (pclinuxos is the same way, ubuntu not so much, but they do let upgrade to the next from the currently installed old version of ubuntu (that's not rolling release at all for ubuntu though)).
