calling the geek squad

There is Wine for ubunto that will let you install and run windows programs up to a point and I think there's something that needs to be loaded in addition to Wine depending on the program. I could be wrong as haven't touched ubuntu since version 10.1

I'm a CompTIA A+ Certified tech, and I work with Linux all day. Hopefully I can help.

Xubuntu is basically Ubuntu that's lighter on resources. Your Compaq nw9440 should be a Core 2 Duo machine, which is way more than enough. I run it with 1.5GB of RAM and a single core CPU. You likely have twice the laptop that I do.

Distributions are like clothes. There are tons of different options. I personally like Xubuntu, and think that it's the best OS for a beginner (Don't worry- I run it on most of my computers, and it can do advanced stuff if you ever need it to).

For the *Buntu distributions, you'll want a LTS distribution. They have updates for three years. The newest LTS is 14.04 (Supported until 2017).

You can use Wine for lots of Windows programs. But, most programs have a Linux equivalent, or something close. I've never installed Word on my Linux laptop, I use LibreOffice.

With a Linux machine, it'll take a day or two to get it "dialed in". Once you have it dialed in, though, it works flawlessly.

18 months, ago, I had six computers that I frequently used for my job. All of them ran Windows. Today, I have one Windows machine, and the rest are Linux. The last one will be going to Linux in the next month.

Once I made the switch, I never have wanted to go back.

If there is any way that I can be of assistance, please let me know. I'm more than glad to help!

Abuilder's post came in while I was writing, so:

I've loved Xubuntu. But, I've also used Mint. Mint is a very complete system, that I'm in love with, too. It does use a little bit more "power" than Xubuntu, so it wasn't as smooth as my ancient 11 year old laptop.

For you, though, Mint would be a fine choice, too.

Linux is different, but I think it's a much superior system.

Also, keep in mind that there are opensource software that do the same, or better, than Windows software. Openoffice does Office, Thunderbird does mail better than outlook, paint.net outdoes Paint, Firefox outdoes IE, among others. If you are going to go Linux, go Linux!