I picked up a very cheap laptop a few months ago (a bit bashed, no battery or charger), but to cut a long story short I had a reasonable 2GB Intel Core Solo laptop up and running for about £50. I decided to install Ubuntu on it and have a good go at it.
I used to dabble in Linux many years ago (usually Slackware) but always got frustrated with the software availability and the amount of time it took to fix something I broke if I was tinkering. Things have changed since then - Ubuntu 10.10 is a very polished environment with good package management and both hardware support and software availability has improved greatly.
There are only a couple of things which prevent me from going to Ubuntu permanently. One is the proprietary Windows based CCTV software which I need to keep for the installations I monitor. The other main bugbear was Spotify.
I love Spotify - I don't mind ads and it's great for discovering new and old music alike. Need to practice a set of tunes for a band - just queue them up. Unfortunately a native Linux Spotify is only available to subscribers because they haven't found a way of delivering the ads yet. However, I was surprised and pleased to read last night that Windows Spotify will work quite happily under WINE. Bonus! I gave it a go and apart from a bit of experimenting with audio settings (and having to go against the advice I found online) I got it working. Sweet!
Now all I need is for the antiquated CCTV systems I referred to above to be replaced then it's bye bye Windows!
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