Has anyone used Ubunto? It's free and I think really great. I just installed it on a very old computer with XP and it lets you either use Ubunto or Windows. I installed the wubi installation and used the 32 bit download because of the size of my computer memory and it installs itself basically. This is the third old computer we have installed with this system or whatever you call it. I love it. They have excellent security built into the program so no need to have or pay for anything else. It is like Apple with everything just a little different but it has turned three computers into a safe and easy alternative for me. Now I have computers on all three floors!!! Came in handy when my cousin was in the hospital and now that I am confined to one room with our dog after his knee surgery.
The HP I am using now would over heat and shut down, I just barely got my stuff of it but it has been great now. I still have to watch when playing videos but that's it! We have put it on two laptops and now the one desktop. You are right that not all programs work on it but if you have Windows still available you can just download on that half of the computer or leave those programs on it. No need to buy any programs for Word or anything as they come with it. Hope you find this helpful. You can donate or not it's up to you.
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/deskt...u-with-windows
Good Luck,
Lisa