KDE friends:

I'm a perpetual KDE/Linux newbie; I have been for about 10 years now. I dip my toes into the water about once or twice a year, invest many sleepless nights getting my fix, and slowly return to Windows.

Last December I built myself a new workstation. For me, a fantastic upgrade. Nothing earth shattering, but I have a Phenom x4 3.7, 120 gig SSD (mushkin), Asus mb, nVidia graphics, etc. I spent quite a few nights tinkering in Kubuntu 11.10 then 12.04 this last spring. I inevitably seem capable of either breaking my Kubuntu installation or rendering it so buggy and unstable I can't stand to use it. Yes, over and over again. I made 12.04 unworkable in record time (about three days I think). I am an eye candy junkie, so that is ONE of my problems - but my biggest one is my lack of knowledge with text commands in Linux in general. I've never invested the time. I return to my comment about eye candy: you see, I like check boxes and dialog screens. Windows is my friend in this regard, I get along fine in that environment. If not for my penchant in building and tweaking hardware, I'm sure I'd like Apple too.

So, my point in all this: how can I ensure a more stable long term relationship with KDE? Where can I go to learn the pitfalls with Linux? Which distro is best for KDE? Which apps should I avoid within a KDE environment? I detest everything else I've tried, and I've tried many versions of Gnome environments through both Ubuntu, LinuxMint and Suse. I prefer the Ubuntu/debian based distros personally, but am open to anything if I can make it a longer term relationship. I think KDE is just beautiful for the most part (some of it looks garish - when will linux operating systems get rid of shiny, fat, puffy stars for example?)

I am interested in supporting the ongoing movement within the Linux community and especially KDE, but need some guidance for the future. So much of what I see and read seems geared and tailored to those who are not only comfortable with the terminal, but actually prefer it to a graphical user interface for OS and application options. I am willing to learn more than I currently do in the text command arena, but I don't have the time or desire to become a programmer and expert in that area (most of the folks I've come across over the years in Linux circles are just that - programmers).

I'm just a boring guy who enjoys computers in general as a hobby - particularly graphics and photography. Oh, and I love the concept of freedom in open source.

Any advice is appreciated. Have a great day!

Definitely try Linux Mint KDE. Worst comes to worst, use Kubuntu. I would even recommend PCLinuxOS or Mageia.
Opensuse is fantastic with KDE, but it's a bit scary for someone considered a newbie. Plus, it's stability has gotten BAD.
Arch is fantastic, but it's very complicated. So stick with the newbie friendly ones ^
I have always had issues with Nepomuk search, so I would outright disable it in KDE settings.
You can also try disabling some effects if need be. Try using Xrender instead of opengl.

If you use mint or kubuntu, I recommend using the latest LTS release and using ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports
KDE has done nothing but get better from 4.3 and on.
One final tweak I used to do when I used KDE was setting log in into and empty session. I always like having a fresh boot.
Best of luck with linux and KDE!

i would recommended openSUSE (12.2) with KDE 4.8.5, i tested on two laptop work great and smooth. and yes YaST is lil bit scary, but over the time you will be fine with it. you can also upgrade to KDE 4.9.x. you may install kernel-postfactum from OBS to improve desktop experience.
Chakra is good too, but not suitable for newcomers because based on semi rolling release nature.
imo KDE implementation form Kubuntu, Mint KDE, Arch Linux is just plain vanilla KDE (no offence ^_^)

btw im using Arch Linux with KDE,