[Dave1967]

I used Xandros for sometime and it is not free, plus if they did not changed how video card drivers are installed I would avoid it. I was behind Ubuntu even then on the kernel version it was using. As for software options Pclinuxos and Ubuntu are both better choices. I use PClinuxos now and I am vary happy with it. Most of the codecs, java and others are installed on installation. There is no need enable this repository for this or that in PClinuxos you just start synaptic and search for any of the below and mark install. I never liked the run around they give you on Ubuntu to install codecs. If you want MP3 playback and encode... install lame from synaptic

here have a look at PClinuxos

http://www.pclinuxos.com/

here is a website that sell Computers and they have a yourtube video of PClinux

http://linpc.us/