I have to say, in all my years of working with computers (got my first one at age 5, built my first at 12, several computer related jobs, so on and so forth), I have never come across a community such as the Ubuntu one. Even when I forayed into Red Hat and SUSE, the support wasn't like this. Perhaps it's because this is a more "consumer oriented" Linux distro, perhaps it's due to the rise in use of Linux in general. Perhaps it's just a sign of the times.
I've become a fairly active member on the official Ubuntu forums now through my modding of my system to be as close to a Mac as possible (and it's pretty damn close). I found ways that worked for me that weren't necessarily posted and posted my bits to help people. You know, pretty much the way a message board is supposed to work. But these people have helped learn more about the terminal than I ever expected to learn, and I found out it's fun. I have yet to screw anything up because there's so much information out there if I just look hard enough. I've hacked the GTK+ system to put my application menus in the top menu bar via a Gnome panel applet (just like a Mac), and then I further hacked that to add to the effect (removed the underlines from the first letter of each menu, removed the drop down arrow, etc). I've changed transparencies of individual things. I've reworked the AWN dock to look as identical to the Leopard dock as possible. Inserted icons, modified fonts, the list goes on and on. And you'd think that somewhere down the line, I'd screw something up. But I haven't. Ubuntu runs flawlessly; much, MUCH faster than XP, and I'm finding new functionalities every day.
I've got Internet Explorer installed for school (though Opera has worked fine so far), and I can install Photoshop CS2 if I need to (though GIMP is pretty good). Can I game? Theoretically, I can. Half-Life 2 (and any game based off of it's engine) can run if installed right through WINE, and multimedia is actually better through Ubuntu. There's no iTunes (yet), but for the albums that I have paid for through iTunes, I can either burn out to CD and reimport as MP3, or I can pull the torrent file for (technically, as I've paid for it already, I can do that legally). I've learned all of this through a combination of playing around and through easy research. I've become a contributor to the Mac4Lin transformation pack and the MacMenu applet. I'm helping debug minor things on LaunchPad. And best of all, my 4 year old laptop, which was mediocre at that time, runs Ubuntu, Compiz Fusion, AWN, and anything that I've thrown at it fast and flawlessly. I don't find myself yearning for an upgrade (other than a monitor) so I can do the latest thing like I always feel with Windows. I don't feel like I'm left behind because of crappy support for my old integrated graphics, or my less-than-par processor.
I only wish for 3 points of compatibility: IE7 for school (I HATE 6's interface), Office 2007 (I really got used to the interface and find the "older" style of OpenOffice annoying now), and iTunes (I've always liked the simpler interface for organizing my music). At some point, someone will figure out the first two, and I really think Apple could do a lot of great PR for itself by supporting at least Ubuntu (as it's now being packaged OEM with computers), if not all of Linux. But then you get into the whole cracking their DRM thing. Granted, with the rising availability of iTunes Plus tracks (with no DRM at all), that may eventually be a non issue. At any rate, I find myself not even thinking of logging into XP at all. I probably won't ever get rid of XP completely; I'm sure the second I wipe it from my system, I'll need it for something. lol But I have scaled back it's partition to a minimum so Ubuntu has more room to breathe.
Were it not for the support of other users and developers on a personal level (I've only read maybe one or two FAQs rather than actually asking someone), I probably wouldn't feel this way. Windows XP is by far more compatible with comercial software, but in almost every instance, there is an open source analogue that I can use to replace it. There's a few programs that are just better commercial (that is the power of a large budget and dev team), but nothing that is a complete deal-breaker. Ever since I started using Ubuntu a few months ago (and that was really just to curiously play around), I've used Windows less and less. In fact, I'm toying with the idea of wiping XP, using the entire hard drive for Ubuntu, and virtualizing XP back in through VMWare for the couple of programs I might need. It's not difficult, so we'll see.
So what's my point? That I like the people and support that come along with Ubuntu? Yes, very much so. But there's also a plug: Give it a try. Got a CD burner? Who doesn't? Download it and burn it to CD. You don't even have to install it to try it! Just reboot with it in your CD-ROM and play around a bit. It can run off the CD so you can "try before you buy" (although, it's free, so there is no "buy", just install). Got extra hard drive space? Create another partition (way easier than it sounds) and install it to dual boot. You might just find out that you like it. To try Mac OS X, you gotta buy an Apple. To try Vista, you gotta buy the upgrade (and then deal with all the headaches that come with it). To try Ubuntu, you have to burn a CD. If you don't like it, you're out the pocket change the CD cost. No biggie. ~_^
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