I'm still skeptical about it being compatible with all things Windows but I'm not the techie in the family :) and you can't beat the price!
Are you expecting to pick up a windows program and run it under Linux?
That will be rare...
But on a functional basis ...there are the basic programs available for Linux...other than in the Games arena.
Open Office will supply 80% of the capability of MS Office for example.
If you are a '"Facebook fan there are two relatively new distributions available that are aiming to focus on such cloud applications....( Zorin and Peppermint )
It isn’t compatible with all things Windows. That is sort of the point and the problem. ;-)
There are emulators that let it run a significant amount of Windows software (see Codeweavers for an idea of such stuff.) However, the idea is to use Linux native applications that substitute for what you find on Windows. Examples: Evolution, or Thunderbird as an email client, Firefox instead of IE, OpenOffice instead of Word/Excel/Powerpoint, etc.
I have two machines at home. One has Linux the other has XP. I boot the XP machine (a laptop) once every 2-3 weeks. The Linux box is net connected 24/7 behind a hardware firewall. Never has problems.