I downloaded the free version of VMWare server and installed Ubutnu onto it, figuring I’d end up deleting it 20 minutes later. As it turned out, Ubuntu is the least sucky version of Linux I’ve seen so far. I even connected to the internet without creating 4 partitions, making a make file, and recompiling the kernel from a console window!
It seems like Google has the right idea. If and when they make a desktop version of Linux based on Ubuntu I’ll buy it.