I had a laptop of modest resources running WindowsMe, about 12 mths ago I found that AV companies had pretty much dropped that as a supported system, it was also probably in need of a clean re-install to have a proper cleanout and get it running better, in fact usability was just about down to zero. I decided to investigate Linux, that the non-geek press were just starting to talk about.

I read a bit, and tried live CDs for one or two distributions (distro's or flavours as I soon learned to call them) and eventually plumped for installing Ubuntu, mainly because I could find plenty of info on how to proceed. Being no techno-wizard I was still quite apprehensive, but the installation went fine, and the machine now sits by my bed, running much better than before. I haven't done anything very technical on it though I have done some recording and word processing, plus the obvious surfing & e-mailing.

If you fancy a go at Linux you could do worse than follow a similar pattern, though you might choose a different distro there being literally hundreds of them. Many are available as live CDs, you burn a CD, load it into the drawer then reboot, this enables you to run the system from the CD to see whether it works with your hardware, and whether you actually like what the distro offers. Live Cds seem to run a bit slower than the installed version of the same distro, but they give a good idea whether you will find the install useful. The beauty of this method is that you have changed nothing on your machine unless you choose to install, if you decide not to proceed just shut down and remove the CD, when you restart you will be back with Windows or OSX and no harm done.

http://distrowatch.com/ is a constantly updating site where you can find a huge range of distributions to fit the most obscure needs. One that is getting a lot of attention is Mint, an Irish take on Ubuntu which is claimed to be even easier to install. Adding programmes and removing them is generally tidier than with windows, and I haven't found one yet that wanted to charge for software I wanted.

Some distributions (such as Puppy, and Damn Small Linux) will run in tiny amounts of RAM, so if you have an old machine gathering dust in a cupboard this could be a candidate for a make-over.

Altogether I am very glad I took the plunge.