Originally Posted By: haertig
One cool thing about Linux ... If you have a full backup of your system, you can write that to a new hard disk (e.g., for the case where you old hard disk failed on you - as they all eventually will). You can take this new hard disk that was restored from your backups and shove it into just about any new computer hardware, and it will boot up and run!


Agreed -- it works! I'm partial to Linux Mint 32-bit because it will run on any Intel/AMD box (including 64-bit) with hardly a complaint. It even has adequate video/hardware drivers built in, so there's essentially no "tweaking" required when switching machines. Paired with a small, inexpensive SSD hard drive, it's a really flexible solution.

Scrounge alert: Windows 7 support is ending in about 18 months, which means there are going to be a ton of free, perfectly good laptops up for grabs. Linux users rejoice!