Didn't like Xandros, but will try it again one day
I installed XP on this Eee I'm typing on right now for a couple of reasons, I did try to get to grips with the Xandros OS but found the software it came with a little 'kludgy' (apart from Firefox) - I won't use even half the apps it came with and those that I did use I didn't like. At one point the stupid OS refused to let me access any UMS devices (flash, HD and CD/DVD), saying I didn't have permission so I had to do a restore-to-factory-default on the machine to get things working again.
The audio playing tool was a bit pants, sure it handled mp3/ogg & streaming radio which are the ones I use most but I like Winamp, it's small (doesn't need nearly the entire screen to operate), simple & powerful and I'm not talking about the latest version but an older version from a few years ago (don't need video playback on it).
The video playing tool had a couple of useful features but generally video playback was not smooth, there was noticable 'tearing' where halfway through displaying a frame on the screen it would start displaying the next frame. I can't stand Media Player 9 & later on Windows which is why I use Media Player Classic with ffdshow because the combination of the two mean a straightforward interface of a program that can play almost any audio/video file (bar mkv & ogg video but I don't use those) including being a DVD player so no having to fart around with bloatware such as WinDVD or PowerDVD just to watch a film. XP on the Eee provides smoother video playback in my experience.
Windows is an environment I'm familiar with, yes I know that sounds bad and I will at some point restore this Eee back to it's Xandros OS to have another bash at getting 'into it', but for now I'm sticking with XP because I don't want to have to re-learn how to use various linux based audio/video/image editing programs when I already know how to use the Windows programs I have, that will work fine on the Eee.
As for the extra built-in hardware, the wireless card works, the ethernet works, the SD reader works, the touchpad works & the webcam all work fine. Saying things like "Just think of the wireless ethernet card you probably won't be able to use anymore." is precicely the kind of FUD I'd expect from linux fanboys.