I've always wanted to try Linux, but two factors have prevented me.
1. The time required to learn a new os.
2. The bother to install it
3. By the time I manage to download any of the prepackaged distros (dont really wanna roll my own yet) on my 56k, I'm sure it'll be horribly out of date.

The main reason is #3. I know I could buy it, but have better uses for the money. I do use lots of open source sw, and I believe it is probably the future of desktop computing. I wish I had known about Linux back in the windows 95 days, but I'm pretty satisfied with Windows 2000. I havent had to do a reinstall since I last upgraded my hard drive (around a year now) and I can't say I've experienced a single crash that wasn't my fault (using beta/unstable third party sw). Windows isn't the nightmare it used to be, of course using quality components in your computer (with corresponding quality drivers) makes all the difference with Windows. So in summary: I don't use linux because Windows doesn't create enough problems for me to make the effort downloading it worthwhile.

Re: Linux views
 

Which is the best version of linux to use. I want to make the transition on my old 365XD laptop just because removing the excess code would seem like the machine would fly... i'm at a standoff right now in which version is best. Redhat, Gentoo, mandrake?

Re: Linux views
 

I don't think I'd choose any of those. Mandrake and Redhat are pretty hard to really slim down to run on an older computer. Gentoo would be really annoying as most people choose to compile it from scratch, which would take a few days for a p133 to get a working system. I'd choose Debian or Slackware since those can be exceptionally light-weight setups.