Few Linux distributions are paid for

Nowadays, many people run Ubuntu or Mint, which tries to provide a good balance between the latest greatest developments and stability, and is therefore usually a good choice for newcomers. Debian, the mother project of both, is more on the "stable" side (use older, less featured versions of programs, but stable). Fedora is significantly more on the "provide the latest greatest even if it's very unstable" (as were PulseAudio, KDE 4, etc. when they were introduced) side than Ubuntu is.
Let's also mention Arch, which is probably best used by mid-experienced and experienced users, and Sabayon, a somewhat less common choice but a decent one nevertheless. My own favorite distro is SimplyMEPIS, which is a Debian base with a number of newer packages.

http://distrowatch.com lists hundreds of distros, way too many to describe here. Unless you have specific needs, you should not stray from the "top 20".

Another point for ubuntu, I have several distros running and it is by far my fav. If you are looking for customization I would go with debian though. It'n not much fun to set up(debian) on the other hand...

I will probably be getting a laptop soon. I'm wondering which ditro of Linux is best for a begginner(to linux) who is used to windows XP/7 to start with

Ehh... Ubuntu is a pain sometimes, and the guys who develop it are idiots.
Believe me, after years of using them, they almost always leave my system in a shambled state after an upgrade.

However, I've installed Mint Linux on another USB HDD, and I'm loving it. The main difference between Ubuntu and Mint Linux is that Mint Linux usually comes with more installed, and is (generally) ready to go, while Ubuntu may need some things installed/tweaked before you're ready to settle down.

Either way, Ubuntu (and my new preferred distro, Mint Linux) are both good to start out with. If you have experience in Linux (unlikely, since you're asking for a distro!), Debian and Arch are good choices, but expect a lot of terminal time before settling down.

It really, really depends on what you need.

P.S. - if this is going on a laptop, you should have an eithernet connection while installing, as well as when you are installing additional drivers for your Wifi card. (And in case you're wondering, Windows drivers != Linux drivers, so that driver CD isn't going to work for ya.) If you're not able to do this, research and download the proper Linux drivers for your Wifi card, and then install them after doing the necessary reboots and such for installing Linux. For Ubuntu/Mint Linux, you should look at downloading DEB files, preferably from the official repository for Ubuntu/Mint Linux at http://packages.ubuntu.com/ and http://packages.linuxmint.com/, respectively.

I tired of windows and want a little more customizability and control.
I usually use XP but my XP is having problems so I am currently using Windows 7 and I don't really like it.

Few Linux distributions are paid for

There are paid ones???

I never used Linux, but I got told by many people that if I am not very tech-savy, I should start with Ubuntu or Mint. Before, people would only recommend me Ubuntu, but in the past two years it's more Mint.

Slightly more advanced user: Windows DOS

PLEASE, please don't refer people to Windows DOS! (I'm going to assume you mean DOS, since the Windows "DOS" is the Windows NT/2000/XP/7 command line, which implies you installing it anyway.**) Although it is a fun environment for some old games, there's absolutely no way you can go online these days without using something "modern" like Windows, Mac, or Linux. Whereas the Linux CLI is pretty plentiful (assuming you have more than just a CLI shell), the DOS environment is a barren desert, unfortunately. That's why there's DOSBOX!

** OK, I'm lying. You *can* get a Windows CLI only interface, but only if you strip *everything* out, and the CLI only version is usually for building recovery tools and such on top of it - basically, not for general public use.

@albert actually, with ndiswrapper, Windows Wifi drivers = Linux wifi drivers, but in most hardware cases outside of wifi and Video cards (don't worry, they're easy enough, esp. on Ubuntu and Mint), Linux will have a driver, usually auto installed or included in the kernel.

Ehh... ndiswrapper is a bad bad idea (at least that's what I've been hearing), and should only be used if there is no or little (aka non-working) native driver support at all.

And for wifi drivers, I should also mention that you typically just need to download proprietary stuff. For me (Broadcom), I had to download firmware to get it working.

There are paid ones??? O_O

I never used Linux, but I got told by many people that if I am not very tech-savy, I should start with Ubuntu or Mint. Before, people would only recommend me Ubuntu, but in the past two years it's more Mint.

Yup - such include (without going too much into details) SUSE Linux (http://www.novell.com/products/desktop/), Red Hat Linux (http://www.redhat.com/rhel/desktop/), and the now defunct Linspire/Xandros Desktop (http://www.xandros.com/products/desktop/). The first two have been very successful at delivering this to businesses and such; the last not so much.

As for the sudden change from Ubuntu to Mint... Ubuntu recently (or should I say always) shows their ignorance to the community, refusing to fix bugs, making sudden irrational changes without community input, and focusing on pretty rather than the system core. You'd know there's something wrong when the "benevolent dictator" (Mark Shuttleworth) forces people to use a Mac OS like window toolbar and at the same time not making it as stable as a Mac.

And guess what? They're going to overhaul the GUI again.
Old: (10.10)

New: (11.04, next release)

(The release numbers jump from 10.10 to 11.04. It's formatted as YEAR/MONTH, and a release occurs every 6 months.)

In short, things aren't going in the right direction, and they've simply alienated the community, kinda like TI. /rant

Linux Mint, on the other hand, is based on the Ubuntu releases, but focuses on user experience (stability and usability, not fancy shmancy GUIs). The developers there try their best to patch up any flaws of the released Ubuntu, and make it easy on the user to use it. At the same time, they preinstall things like Java, DVD and MP3 codecs for media players, etc. This is likely why many Linux users (like me) suggest Linux Mint instead of Ubuntu, due to the battles we tend to have with the Ubuntu devs, and the pluses offered to new users to avoid installation hassles.