At the time i knew zero about linux, played around with the toy for a couple days until i figured out how to update it
,I still remember that the process took hours with 1 or 2 restarts in the middle, and in the end the wireless card wasn't working anymore and i think the touchpad aswell. Of course in my next day off i took it to the shop and they replaced it for this Dell i'm using since then.
And this showed me that the linux desktop was not ready for prime-time (is it now? i still don't believe specially if we follow the *buntu way).
This Dell came with Vista, but even with a bad first experience i start reading, searching the web, bookmarking *nix sites and in a couple weeks i was dl Mint 6 and dual boating.
Mint 6 i never broke that i can recall, but shortly after i installed 6, came Mint 7 and this one yes, was my school.
To be honest the system never broke on me as Suse did, but i did everything with it and i broke it so many times i became a "pro" in installations
Been there ... done that. Didn't even get a t-shirt.. 
