Tech_Esq
Sic Semper Tyrannis!
But, to be responsive to the OP, as a computer professional, we have been doing extensive testing of the Windows 7 beta release. Over the last 4-6 months, we have noted that Windows 7 is far superior to and without many of the issues in Vista. So, if you like to pay for your operating systems and want to use a Microsoft product, either install Windows XP (if that's an option for you) or install Windows 7 beta. Vista is unsafe at any speed (and that speed is usually slow and slower......or stopped). And that's if you can get it to find all of your installed hardware each time it boots (nothing short of miraculous).
Make sure you have at least 2 GB of RAM, identify all of your hardware in Device Manager prior to installing the new OS. Go to the manufacturer or PC manufacturer's site and download the relevant drivers for your hardware and burn to CD (just in case). Then upgrade away.
OR, you can spend 4 thousand dollars on an apple which would cost you 800 dollars were it a PC. By all means, install ubuntu. We'll see you back online when you boot up in an MS os and are actually able to make your wifi drivers function. But hey, you'll be uber l33t while you are offline!
While these cultish zombies moan on and on about eating brains your XP, Vista AND win7 machine will be functioning and compatible with the REST OF US.
You can take the word of these nutters with a grain of Justin Long's acting career.
I haven't had any problem getting wifi drivers to work in any flavor of Linux since 2000. And then it was just getting promiscuous mode to work so I could run Kismet.
So, unless you made your own 802.11 device, I doubt you'd have trouble making it working in virtually any kind of Linux.