Re: “Slap on a fresh XP or Vista install, and see if it’s any less diffucult to get up and running.”: Yes, it is unquestionably less “diffucult.” I’ve had lots of experience installing Windows, Mac OS, and various Linux distros. By far the greatest number of problems has occurred with Linux. Admittedly, the installation of PCLinuxOS went very smoothly – for a Linux installation.

All in all, Linux is great, considering the price. However, for those for whom time is money, paying for a commercial OS might be well worth the modest expense.

westcoast, you are a complete, utter idiot. Slap on a fresh XP or Vista install, and see if it’s any less diffucult to get up and running.

Moron.”
Serentude is the real moron over here. These tips are very helpful! Linux is much less hassles and you don’t get pesky spyware and virus problems and BSOD’s and whatnot.
Get a life and get Linux

Moron.

“newbies coming from the Windows world may find these valuable”

– or they could see that Linux is a sysadmin’s dream, not a user’s. I can’t see anyone who hasn’t loved going to a few computer science courses enjoying typing any of those commands in, just so they can use youtube.

Since you have Synaptic open be sure to install “win32-codecs”
to have support for most all media formats.