I have always been a Microsoft product user. Well, simply because there was not many choices.
Most of the people I know uses Windows. In college it was consider cool to use Linux. But only several people went beyond installing them. Most of the time I install Linux in a dual-partition setup. I play with it once in a while but never completely liked it. Everything seems so difficult in Linux back then. The driver was scarce (if any). And all the software was weird. Editing is quite annoying back then. Cause I used to ctrl-x to cut and ctrl-p to paste. It did not work at the time (I forgot the editor I used). And software installation was weird at best. In windows you have installer, where with a click you can setup the software. In Linux many application needs to build from source. And then there RPM, supposedly it helps software deployment problem. But for me it just not as easy as in Windows. Later on when VM became well known, I always have a Linux installed as virtual machine. But never on a single dedicated computer. Always as a backup never as main operating system.

Over the years however I am beginning to like Linux very much. And decided I should have a single dedicated computer that uses Linux. So I bought an Acer 4512 and installed Linux on them. Ubuntu Linux that is. You can find the installation instruction here or a more elaborate one here. I find the first guide simple and it worked. The second guide gives you more detail and alternative if something went wrong.

And it was great. Some screen shot:

Right out of the box the OS just works. What about the application/software installation? Installing a new application on Ubuntu Linux is easy. You can add/remove program from the menu. or use the synaptic package manager from system menu. Or you can use the command line. The command line (which I used to think primitive, you need to type and remember all those commands ) turned out to be the most efficient
ways to carry out some task. And Linux has pipe, in which you can chain several command in a single command. Very efficient.

If you are new to Linux, here is several bundled software get you up and running:

• gedit, a quite advanced editor, it has spell check and support a lot of syntax highlight mode.
• OpenOffice, open source office application, with it you can create documents, spreadsheet, etc.
• Pidgin, an instant messaging application, it supports multiple protocols.
• Firefox, internet browser.
• Evolution, Email suite.
• GIMP, a photo editor application.
• F-Spot, a photo management utility.

To increase your productivity, here is some shortcut:

1. ALT+ F1 : opens application menu.
2. ALT+ F2 : display run dialog.
3. CTRL + ALT+ D : minimizes all windows.
4. print screen : capture screen.
5. ALT+ print screen : capture active window.
6. CTRL + ALT+ left-arrow : switch to workspace left of the current workspace.
6. CTRL + ALT+ right-arrow : switch to workspace right of the current workspace.
6. CTRL + ALT+ up-arrow : switch to workspace above of the current workspace.
6. CTRL + ALT+ down-arrow : switch to workspace below of the current workspace.
7. ALT + TAB : switch to other window.
8. ALT + ESC : switch to other window in reverse order.

You can get the complete list here, or just ask Google.