Linux.com

To start off I'm a high school student who just went to do a report in Microsoft word only to find to my horror that I don't have Word. So now I was forced to search the web for a download, but I've only found cheap 30-day trials. This isn't my first bad experience with windows- when I got my computer I was lucky enough to get one of the few that didn't already have vista pre-installed on it (it had just been released), so I had to wait a few months for the cd to come in the mail. Basically, vista played havoc with all my favorite programs like Photoshop and Realplayer. I eventually had to re-load XP, and in the process lose the copy of Microsoft Office I'd loaded from a cd my friend gave me, which has mysteriously disappeared. So now I'm looking for a new OS. I'd love to use Apple, which I'm actually far more familiar with because for the majority of my life while owning a computer I've used an Apple clamshell, and would gladly use it today even if it weren't so far outdated (made in '99). And I'm obviously not going to up and get a new computer just because I don't like the OS, as I said, I got my current computer less than a year ago. Now I find linux. I've never used it, but I read about it and it sounds fairly decent, and I'd like to try it out. Unfortunately, I'm completely in the dark when it comes to choosing a distro, so I'm asking you for help. What distro would be good for a home computer? I'd need something that runs fast and runs things like games, music, and videos- all the stuff a 15-year old might use on a daily basis. I don't want anything tailored especially for businesses, because chances are it won't run the things I like very well- remember, I use my computer mainly for leisure and a little bit of schoolwork. So if anyone can point me in the right direction or suggest a distro they particularly like, please do.

thanks you elvis.