I just installed Ubuntu on my laptop last night as a last resort temporary fix to my computer problems. My mainboard is bad (determined after running several diagnostic tests after attempting to install a new HD, new RAM, fresh Windows, etc.) and since I'm a student, I can't really afford to be computerless for 2.5 weeks to ship the laptop in and fix it now, so I'm waiting until Christmas break. Since I started getting BSOD errors every few minutes in XP, my boyfriend recommended making a Linux partition so I could boot into either XP or Linux.

I was somehow skeptical that installing a different OS would help with a hardware problem, but I guess I was wrong. It seems like Linux doesn't sweat over the small stuff and I haven't had a computer crash or problem since installing it last night. I can surf the internet to my heart's content. I did have a few issues with Flash and whatnot, but overall I am *so* happy that I might be able to survive until Christmas break without having to restart my computer every 10 minutes.

Anyone else have any experiences to share?

Hey my laptop is linux, So far no problems except for the odd unsuitable system requirements to download certain programmes, but nothing major. All in all, it suits my needs, which is to keep in touch with family and friends. No computer crashes, and it's pretty quick too. I prefer it to windows to be honest.

I have linux running on my old desktop. I like it also. Takes a little getting used to especially trying to install a new program that doesn't come with it, but overall I think it's great. Especially compared to Vista which I have on my laptop where I get the blue screen of death every half hour.

we just took linux ubunto and one other version off our desk top a few weeks ago (yes we went back to windows for the time being) because the kept locking up and being stupid. on us and my DH is having a very hard time to get his weather radar working which he thinks is a video card issue at this point. but i am will to venture a guess and say by the end of the year it will be back on it once again and by next spring we will have a new video card. but when it is working i love using linux we actuall named one of our dogs Gentoo after the linux program because that distro was what had my DH intersted when we got him.

I personally love Unix so Get openoffice (openoffice.org) and you can run office applications.

My version of Ubuntu came out of the box with a few open office applications which was nice, and I also installed wine so that I can emulate some Windows programs, although that works better with some things than others.

2 days in and still no crashes. The only bugs I've had have been little, like one of the screensaver files being corrupt, so I went in and fixed it. Other than that though, I'm enjoying the stability... haha.