"Richard, I'm tempted to try AV Linux - a light weight install package designed specifically for musicians & videograhers."

It's very easy to try. Like Mint 16 mentioned above, you download a DVD image, burn it to a blank DVD which you can boot and find out if it supports all your hardware properly. The live DVD has and almost-one-click installer. I use AVLinux on my studio computer, with Ardour as the main audio recording, editing and mixing tool - done several whole albums on it now, it's a lovely setup.

I have two old laptops running Linux too. One, an IBM Thinkpad R50, is Lubuntu, which is Ubuntu with the LXDE dektop - ultra-lightweight and fast. The other is an HP/Compaq with plain Debian (my favourite Linux distribution).

If in doubt about hardware support, Ubuntu is a safe bet - it works on almost anything and has good hardware detection.

As for Windows 7 - yes, the primary level of support expires soon but that's the same level that was dropped many years ago on XP, while security updates will continue for a long time. They may be emphasising end of Win7 support because nobody wants to buy Windows 8. Almost all Windows 8 sales are pre-installed where buyers hardly have a choice. Win 7 is quite usable if you must use Windows: fast with a solid state drive and 8MB of memory(!), and very stable.