I've been messing around with the latest version of puppy linux to get an old PC (Pentium III, 192MB, 40GB HDD) running again - It seems to work excellent - everything works fine - great little distro for basic computing, recovering stuff and for internet access.
I've decided to push things a little by trying out the latest version of Ubuntu 10.04 32bit on a more modern machine (Centrino 1.6, 1.5GB, 60GB HDD) for a friend that was tired of XP and didn't want anymore virus issues. Ubuntu seems to deliver the goods for her use. She only uses her laptop for assignments, music, internet and MP4/xViD movies (which seem to run smoother than on Windows XP). I've also got Office 2007 running fine via WinE. Not a single problem so far. Her wireless (802.11g) signal strength also seems to be stronger and faster.
Memory usage is at 260MB out of 1.5GB with no pagefile usage - no problems with speed.
Ubuntu seems to be a fairly polished product and have no issues with it so far.
I'm a Windows IT person by trade and have little Linux knowledge - but have enough to nut-it-out
What do you Ubuntu users guys think? I've read alot of negatives about Ubuntu 10.04 - but so far it has worked flawlessly for me.