On second install, Ubuntu Linux worked well and even had a standard way of updating the video driver.  Note: version 10.4 is more customizable than the current 11.1 if that matters to you.  Mint Linux works well and looks great – especially if you like green.  However, on one laptop it installed and ran well only as long as you never shut it down: it refused to turn on again 3 installs in a row.

    PC BSD, on the other hand does not have the support community that Linux does, but could be useful if you want to get into UNIX.

    The only free office suite I recommend is Libre Office which has been compiled, thus runs fast
and does not require Java.  While this suite does not have an Outlook equivalent, it can open the
rest of the files made by MS Office, and can talk back by saving files in the correct formats.