[ThePythonicCow]

I'd recommend Linux (say SUSE or Ubuntu or Kubuntu) over Windows, however that depends on what you want to do with the computer.

If you need to do any of:

• run Quicken or Microsoft Money (no substitutes allowed)
• run Photoshop (no substitutes allowed)
• play serious games

then you probably want Windows XP Home.

Otherwise, one of the Linux distributions such as I named above will be lower cost, more robust, and much less susceptible to viruses and malware.

I run both Linux and Windows myself. I have a couple of Windows boxes for serious gaming, a Windows box for Quicken (I'm a serious user of online banking) and several Linux boxes for various purposes. Almost all my web browsing and document production, as well as my calendar and address book, are on Linux. I use Linux for image manipulation and scanning (but I'm not addicted to Photoshop - Gimp or Pixel is sufficient for my needs.)

Bottom line - we can't adequately recommend what operating system you should get until we know what you need to run on it - the applications you need.

[js1138]

If you need to do any of:

My excellent slide/film scanner will not run on anything but Windows. I'm guessing this is unusual, but you do need to consider things like this.

[Echo Talon]

I'd recommend Linux (say SUSE or Ubuntu or Kubuntu)

Ish... I don't like any of those distros... I'd recommend Mepis 6(on july 10th) or PcLinuxOS