I'm a convert!
I have few problems with Windoze, and even kinda like 8.1. I Did try to use Red Hat years ago in the Win 95 days and it was too much of a PITA, so stayed with what worked, sort of.
But, I have this old laptop with Win 7 on it that is nothing but trouble. I was about to toss it when I just had a feeling and installed Ubuntu-- dual boot in case there's some Windows stuff I need.
Holy Crap! Aside from a heart-stopping notice about trashed files (that were rebuilt and cleaned up) the install was painless from a thumb drive and the laptop is now like a new machine. Fast, crash free and 90% of what I use it for I can do now with much less hassle.
No need to do this to my main home machine, but glad to see linux has grown up.
= new reply since forum marked as read
each one I've tried has had features I liked, and others I didn't. I had tried a couple of Linux distros before, had problems, and kept limping along with WinXP. A DUer recommended Linux Mint and that's been my favorite in most regards, though Lubuntu isn't bad either. Problem is, there are some highly specialized (GPU computing) programs I can't get to run at all under either one. Right now I'm still looking at Scientific Linux and CentOS (both RHEL derivatives) despite problems with installers and what appear to be rather fragile boot sequences (can I please get the same behavior twice in a row ? Please ?). I have Debian installed on one disk (dual boot w/WinXP, 32-bit) but haven't explored it much. It's been crunching numbers 24/7, mostly headless. I'm inclined to look at Fedora Scientific next.
For anyone considering Linux, my recommendation is that you try out several Live CD's before deciding pro/con. My first experiences with Linux didn't impress me, but I use it every day now and have two Linux-only computers now, with one dual-boot that hasn't booted WinXP in months. I still have WinXP for people who send me MS format files, but both the Windows computers in our house run Firefox and have Libre Office installed. 
