Plug-n'-Play Linux

I'm refurbishing an old computer for my little brother, just so he can do stuff like IM his friends, check his e-mail, etc. Since I don't have the cash to spring for Windows, I'm going Linux. I originally downloaded Red Hat 9.0, but then I saw that Knoppix had better hardware detection.

My question is, how much of a hassle would it be for a freshman in high-school (reasonably computer-saavy), to say, plug in a USB flash drive on Red Hat? With Windows, obviously you can just go into My Computer to get to it, but do any of the Linux distributions have an easy way of using a flash drive, or any other common USB driven device (for example, transferring mp3s to a player via USB)? Or does Red Hat aleady have it under control? Thanks in advance for any replies.
-johnnyboy

Go with <A HREF="http://www.mepis.org/book/view/1462" target="_new">Mepis</A> Linux. By far the easiest for my windows-using-freshman-in-college sister to figure out. It even detected her plug in USB CD/RW and automounted it! Even Knoppix couldn't do that. I've been a MEPIS head ever since. Plus, it's a live CD...so you boot up...tweak it...set everything to what you like it...then do the hard disk install and it will install with your configurations. Bewm! Pewf!

Oh yeah, I did an experiment to see if I could get it to run ont he windows 2000 server environment at work. It booted up and I configured it in 5 minutes and was browsing in netscape no problem. Knoppix bombed for me on our weird computers here...but MEPIS took care of me in under 10 min. Give it a go.

----------
<b>It is always brave to say what everyone thinks. </b> <i>Georges Duhamel</i>

TKS