Programming

I think that Linux is really great for programming. Installing other libraries is really a breeze. I would wholehardedly recommend Linux for Programming in:

• C
• C++
• Python
• Java
• PHP
• JavaScript
• Haskell
• Lua
• Lisp

You can also do C# with the Mono toolchain, but I am not sure how compatible that is with the C# and .NET from Windows.

On Windows, I find programming a pain. C does not really work (unless you use Visual Studio maybe), Java works pretty well. Python works also kind of well.

If you want to develop games that run with DirectX, Windows is your only option. OpenGL seems powerful as well, and that runs everywhere.

Word

Doing “Word” stuff should be okay with LibreOffice or OpenOffice.org. It might not be super compatible with Microsoft Word, but you should do fine.

Linux Distro

Go with Ubuntu, maybe Xubuntu or Lubuntu on a Netbook. If you do not like Ubuntu, openSUSE and Fedora would be my next recommendations.

Hardware

Try to get as much Intel hardware as possible, that usually works flawlessly.