Recently my daughter's old Pentium III Compaq laptop completely died. This happened near Christmas so her gift list was an easy one. The problem was that I did not want to spend a lot of money. The other problem was that I hated her having a computer.

I hated it because I constantly had to work on it. She used the computer for homework, instant messaging, and browsing. Every couple of months, I found myself removing spyware and other junk from the computer. Occasionally it was easier just to re-build the computer by re-installing ALL the software, including the operating system. I track her internet usage through my router so I know that she has not been to "questionable" sites but these things continue to work their way into her computer.

I decided to consider something that I had never before considered. LINUX! I picked up another Pentium III (this one was a bit more powerful than her old laptop) desktop for under $100.00. I added some old memory that I had sitting on a shelf. I downloaded SUSE Linux and went to work.

I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the installation was! There was very little interaction and my choices were very simple. In about 30 minutes, I had a working computer connected to the internet.

There are a few things with which I was very pleased. It was running very well with the old hardware. If I had used Windows XP I would have been forced to get a newer computer and spend hundreds of dollars. The operating system came with a browser (Firefox) and complete office software (OpenOffice - which is compatible with Microsoft Office products). There was also a very nice instant messaging tool that allows her to use many different IM clients in one piece of software. It had CD ripping and burning software as well as several audio programs. On top of that, the operating system and all the software were FREE!

Now I know most of the people reading this are thinking, "Ok, we have another anti Microsoft guy here". That is absolutely not true. I am a Windows and web developer by trade and use Microsoft products exclusively (except for using Firefox as a browser when testing). I am a huge believer in the products that Microsoft produces simply because they work and in most cases work VERY well together.

The best thing about this change of operating system is that my daughter's computer is now free of spyware and is not targeted by most viruses. The fact is that most viruses and spyware target Microsoft Windows only. Now I can rest easy knowing that I won't be rebuilding a computer every few months.