As everybody knowing me can tell you, I am a Linux user, and a happy one. I’ve been using it for some 15 years now (hey, is it really that much already? 
) as I started when it was just a little more than some curious thing. It expanded and improved a lot since the early days, and a as matter of fact I use almost exclusively Linux for both work and free time. The only reason for keeping a dual boot system has been, for years, just to play a game of Civilization! 
It’s therefore not surprising what happened one year ago. My girlfriend had laptop (a bit old one) running Windows, can’t even recalled the version, likely some XP. She used it little, and also found that little quite frustrating due to system slowness and the need for frequent reboots. I let you imagine the poor little 256 Mb laptop swapping madly as soon as M$ Office started, keeping itself busy for a long time at every start-up with virus scanning, slowing down execution for real-time virus checking, and so on. She was on the verge of throwing the thing out of the window (literally, as she was really pissed off by the whole experience).
As she used it almost exclusively for Internet browsing, email, writing/reading documents, pictures and music (hey, isn’t that what most of users do?) I stepped in and asked if she wouldn’t be interested in trying something different from Windows and that could accomplish those very same tasks. I let here have a tour of my Linux laptop (a Mandriva distribution at the time) and play with it a little. As a result we decided to erase the M$ stuff from her laptop and install Linux. She’s been quite a happy user ever since, with just a single downside I can recall of: couldn’t make the WiFi work on that old machine, a pity even if she didn’t use it at the time.
As of lately she started to use the laptop more often, and for her current activity she needs to manage quite big pictures, manipulate them a bit and then include the result in documents. It’s really too much for those 256 Mb of RAM. Add the fact that the keyboard is sort of detaching itself from the machine (!), and you may guess that a new laptop was needed.
I started looking around for what was available on the market, specifically looking for a system supported by Linux. As I knew, it’s often difficult to asses in advance Linux compatibility for any given laptop due to lack of support/info from hardware manufacturers.
You just Google for info and other user’s experiences, often finding several disagreeing among them. Some system appears as working out of the box, or with some effort, but you’re never really sure it’s the same machine you just saw in the store (especially if several different hardware configuration are distributed for that model).
Laptop makers do not provide pre-installed Linux systems, or at least compatibility info. Dell, in fact, started selling pre-installed Linux laptops (Kubuntu distribution, the same I am using nowadays), but not in Italy. A pity, as I’d had ordered one straight away. I let them know, through their website, that they lost a sure customer.
In the end I focused on a local chain store that would offer a big discount, take it back within 8 days if I wasn’t happy with the purchase (no questions asked!), grant us an extended 3-years guarantee. I finally choose an Acer Aspire 5520G, and installed Linux (Kubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn). Just copied on it all my girlfriend’s stuff from the old machine, and it’s ready for action 
A point is worth highlighting about the whole thing. Why should I be forced to buy a Windows Vista licence when I want a laptop to be used with Linux (or anything else)? It’s theoretically possible to have the money back but it’s a difficult process and they usually give you just few Euro. This can be rightfully called Microsoft Tax. And M$ even claims that Vista is selling well. I’d say computers are selling well, not Vista. Something may be changing in Europe, even if way too slowly.
