I'd say take the Linux plunge, for now. It's not much of a plunge anymore. Many of the desktops are easier to install -- and vastly quicker -- than Monopoly-ware.
If you've not had Linux on the desktop before, I'd suggest you start with SimplyMEPIS 3.3.1. It goes on the hard drive in less than a half hour, but you get to see the flavor first, because it's also a live/rescue disk. The simplest, quickest install. Then, if you don't like it, you're not out much time. It'll sit right next to your Monopoly-ware, without bothering it a bit, and you can get into your Windows files if need be. It's a one-disk install. It's Debian based, apt-get updates, with some MEPIS customizing.
If you want enterprise quality, without paying for it, I cannot emphasize enough how good Scientific Linux is. I know I sound like a pedant, but it honestly is a well-kept Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 that's been further sanitized and improved by a bunch of Ph.ds who can't afford to have their systems down. It's running on thousands of machines throughout the world, but few people know of it. It's along the lines of CentOS, Tao, and White Box, but with far more ardent scrutiny. That's a three-disk install, but it's clean and you'll have it on in much less than an hour (right next to your Winders partition). It's RPM based, three-disk (you don't need the fourth disk) and has both Gnome and KDE desktops.
Another one that's good experience is Ubuntu. It's Gnome, always cutting-edge, and is funded by Mark Shuttleworth, the guy from South Africa who sold his software business for a ton of money and then when into outer space with the Russians, just for fun. The guy is deeply committed to open source and has made never-end commitment to Ubuntu being there and being free of charge. It's one disk, but some people are put off by the Debian installer (I sort of like it). It's Debian based, for the most part, though the crew there reworks every .deb, then sends the improvements to Debian. A win/win situation, seems like.
Fedora's not quite ready for prime time with the Core4 yet, but in June, that might be another one. KANOTIX is a real sleeper. Fantastic hardware detection and some interesting bells and whistles. He out Knoppixes Knoppix, but it's good clean fun. It's one disk, and as near unstable pure as you can get without going completely Debian, which isn't all that good an idea yet, because of easier alternatives (I love Debian, and I'll bet I'll hear from folks who want to lop off my head for saying what I said, but we're thinking in terms of a good jump-in-head-first desktop for you.
Hope that helps. Heck, since I'm a shut-in, all I do is sit around installing and uninstalling distros all day (and night), so I've tried a lot (most) of them. The real problem these days is that there are so MANY good options for the normal desktop, it boggles the mind.
And, though it might not be the right thing to do on a LUG mailing list, that new PCBSD (PC-BSD) has an INSTALLER! You can have BSD on a machine and be as non-technical as I am, which is my wife yelling, "Get away from that wheelbarrow! You don't know nuthin' about machinery!"
'Nite,
William Roddy Quincy CA [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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