I use Linux by preference; it provides a desktop environment (more than one, actually) just as attractive as Windows. There are many different distributions, of which Ubuntu is the one many people have heard of but personally I like Fedora, which is backed by Red Hat. They all provide access to a wealth of free, open-source software that is more than adequate for most purposes. I built all of this website using open-source programs, notably bluefish for editing the html and the GIMP for the images. If you are interested in finding out more, here are some general links.