Greg Laden provides a good guest post by Scott Rowed. I agree in general with what he has to say. I found that I did have some problems with wireless when I got my wife to switch using a defunct laptop. The previous user had just dumped it due to problems with Windows XP which would have required a reinstallation. He wanted a new PC and I got the old one for a song (or perhaps the agreement not to sing).
There have been two issues: 1) Some squirrely wireless problems and 2) playing DVDs. You’ll have to research that last one on your own as it’s both technically and legally convoluted.
Otherwise, my wife likes Linux better than she liked Windows.
