I looked at installing XP a while back, but decided I didn't want to screw with redoing all the drivers. I'm not techie enough to desire Linux, so I'm not going to go that route. I'm trying to see if this might be some strange fluke, I'm really hoping I don't have to put down more money for this horrible OS.
You would be surprised how un-techie you can be and still do Linux. Download a couple Distros, burn them to a CD, try them out as live-cds (see if everything works before you install), you may be surprised what you find. Installation can usually be completely through a graphical interface, no command line. Quite often everything works right out of the box and if not Google is your friend.
My 7 and 9 year old don't seem to have any trouble using it
Recommended Starting Distros: PCLinuxOS, Ubuntu (or Kubuntu) or Mint.
Monty