I run Ubuntu on two machines, and I'm very impressed with it. While I'm capable of troubleshooting, there was something nice about popping in the disk and it /just worked/. It just did. Everything--sound card, video, it was all set up 100% perfectly with only a handful of simple questions during the install process.
I added a couple of repositories to the Synaptic package manager (what you use to search for software) and added the scientific and technical software I need (such as GRASS and Octave). How to do this was all spelled out in the help and in the Ubuntu forums.
Updates are very simple--easier even than Windows XP updates, since restarts seem to be unnecessary.
I first tried Ubuntu at 5.04, and now I'm running 5.10. I recommend it to /anyone/ who wants a stable OS with lots of available software such as OpenOffice, AbiWord, Octave, etc.
Jim
BTW, my main scientific workstation already had XP installed. I installed Ubuntu on a second hard drive, and Ubuntu set up the boot loader to properly boot either Ubuntu OR XP. XP doesn't even know it has company.