Ubuntu

Since Windows 7 beta started complaining that it expires I have been trying again Ubuntu (10.04 Lucid Lynx).
Although it has improved significantly still the user experience is not as smooth as in Windows.  For example such basic things as DVD playback and Flash do not work out of the box.

I will try to share my findings about Ubuntu.

For me one of the major new features in Windows Vista is the search box in the start menu. No need to navigate through menus to find some program or browse through directories to locate some document, just press the Win key and start typing the name. A similar thing exists in Linux - Deskbar-Applet. And its even more powerful and flexible. Deskbar supports many extensions (searches) which interpret the search string in different ways. For example it can do simple calculations, can search in Google, Wikipedia, dictionary and many other things.

This is the Linux way - initially hard to setup but afterwards it is very powerful.