Linux distro for newbies

I have a project which might involve putting Linux in the hands of 
total Linux newbies.  What distro is recommended these days?  I'm 
after something that's easy for an end user to navigate and can be 
setup to be self maintaining with regards to security patches, etc.

The main applications will be Internet based, web browsing and email, 
maybe OpenOffice as well.

Assume that the end user is going to be just that - a user, and not 
likely to want to get to know their new OS.


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