A word of caution - on the laptops I have owned the function key (F5 or F9 or whatever) turns the touchpad completely off. That may or may not be what you actually want - I find it better to turn off only the "tap to click" setting, but leave the touchpad itself enabled. That way I can use it with the physical buttons as needed, but not have the highly annoying problem of the cursor jumping because I accidentally "tapped" the touchpad while typing.
As for Linux - that's all I use on my laptops now. There is a religious war involved in any discussion about Linux, with some who absolutely hate it for various philosophical or technical reasons, and many who promulgate the idea that it is hard to use unless you are a hacker. My own experience includes setting up Ubuntu Linux machines for non-hackers (again, religious flames will follow the choice of Ubuntu or really any "distro" of Linux!); I have found that for the average user it is not much different than switching to a new version of Windows, and generally easier than switching from Windows to Mac or vice versa. Yes, there are times they need help with some mysterious issue that requires a computer nerd to resolve ... same as I find on a regular basis with Windows and, yes, even Mac users.
The most significant difference in terms of when nerd-help is needed involves hardware compatibility issues. On a Mac, the hardware is absolutely, rigidly controlled, so there is (or should be) no issue with getting any of the hardware to talk to the software. (Or another way to say it, on the Mac platform, you HAVE to buy certain hardware, and anything else probably won't work.) For Windows, there is enormous pressure on any hardware producer to make sure it will work with Windows before the hardware is released, and these days, almost all hardware makers will also make sure it works with Mac.
There is much less pressure to do this for Linux, but many hardware manufacturers do actively support Linux; meanwhile, the open software development community works hard to make sure that the vast majority of hardware "just works," and what doesn't work today usually gets fixed in the next cycle or two of updates. Still, there are a few odds and ends of things that may not work, or may require an awful lot of fiddling to get them to work, due to a limited number of Linux developers who have that particular hardware. Example: I have experienced two printers in this category; one is a Ricoh networked copier/printer; the other is a Dell 1660C low-end color printer.
Also in this category are occasional odds and ends of function-key commands on laptops - it is not uncommon for a given brand of laptop, running Linux, to have the volume up/down function keys work, but not the touchpad enable/disable keys, or vice-versa, or some other such hardware-related function key commands. (As I understand it, the issue has to do with very odd ways that these hardware-function-keys are recognized in the hardware -- or rather than they are not generated in hardware the way a normal key press is generated -- part of the compromises and tricky packaging that goes into squeezing the hardware into a laptop.) Frankly, this issue has never bothered me, because a) I rarely need or want these hardware-function-keys, and b) if I really need them, it is generally easy enough to re-map a different key combination to the desired result. (Yep, there's where you may need a Linux nerd's help.)
To be fair, these sorts of hardware issues can also arise with Windows, especially with respect to older (but still perfectly functional) hardware. Ironically, for such hardware, Linux is MORE likely to work. The key is to make sure any hardware you have or are about to buy is supported by Linux (this info is widely available on the internet). And as noted above, the same issue really applies to Macs - you have to be sure you buy only Mac-approved/supported hardware, but in the case of Macs, the list of approved hardware is much, much smaller and generally much more expensive.
I'm trying to give you a clear and honest understanding of the issues you MAY run into with Linux ... but here's the bottom line. When I first began using Linux, six or seven years ago, it was a bit more work to install and tweak it, and a bit more uncertain what would and wouldn't work. But these days, 99% of the time, I load Linux onto a laptop (by booting up the machine with a DVD or memory stick and following the prompts - pretty much the same way you'd install any other operating system) -- and everything JUST WORKS. One nice thing with most Linux distros - you can run them from the DVD or memory stick for a while just to try them out, without having to commit to modifying the machine. Just be aware that running this way will be very, very slow compared to how it will run when installed - especially if running from a DVD - DVD drives are much, much slower than hard drives!
I will not be surprised if a religious discussion about the merits or demerits of Linux or its various distros (e.g., Ubuntu) follows this post. Before it begins, let me just say: I am sharing only my personal experience with using Linux (Ubuntu); I am sure that there is a variety of experience out there, so YMMV.
