android is google's version of linux.

HawaiiMusikMan has nailed the rest.

I have used earlier versions of lubuntu on my ibm 600 think pad. I worked great and still does. Only thing is the sound doesn't work. Its beyound me to fix but other have worked around this. Just saying that it works fine on low end systems.

I use 11.10 at work all day long. I do tons of adim documents and other related type of work. Editing pictures is a big thing here for reports. All said, the unity desktop just allows the flow of work to happen very nicely. At first I migrated to linux mint katya and since they went to lisa I rock back in forth between the two. Work laptop has ubuntu 11.10 my laptop is running lisa. I really enjoy them both, however I like the look and feel of lisa and linux mint's philosophy on how things should be and that they listen to the end use.

Microsoft word = 300 libre Office = free

windows 7 about 250 Linux = free

I just choose free all the time and it works super. I do the install and never have any problems with the configs.

uSE LINUX AND BE DONE!

As for puppy there are some new distros and I have tried them. They work supper! Puppy is where I got my start using linux. Laptop gave me tHis: "Windows not Found". Googled data recovery for my work laptop and after hours of searching for methods of recovery I found a small link that read something like' use linux to recovery data" So I read the info, downloaded and burnt the iso and got all my data by mounting the hard drive.

After that I found Ubuntu Hardy Heron and never went back to windows!

AND YOU KNOW WHAT IT'S FEAKING FREE!!!!!

I have been using linux mint 11 and ubuntu 11.10 at work. Mint on an old box with a p4 and Ubuntu 11.10 on a new dell laptop with a dual boot. Never used the windows side of the laptop just can't over write cuz it's not mine other wise it would all be ubuntu.

Linux Mint 11 works fine on old machines, read rainbow trout's responses. He has laid out some good comments.