I'm running Fedora Core 4...Core 3 came with the Dummies book on DVD. My main motivation for getting that particular book was 1) I've heard good things about the Dummies books, and 2) it came with a distro.
I really didn't have the means to download and burn my own CDs to install, so it worked out well that it came with a DVD.
I've found the hardware support to be good so far. I haven't had to hunt for a single driver yet, but then again the only hardware I've added was a multi-card reader, which it automatically recognized.
I'll have to try the online book you suggested. Especially since it, as you say, starts at zero. I prefer books that start with nothing. I forced myself through the Hex and Binary portions of my Assembly books even though I already knew it just to keep inline with the author's teaching style.
Thanks, ~jp