For the record, the problem in Norway was that government programs to encourage electric vehicle ownership were too successful and incentivized people to drive instead of use transit. Also, the financial incentives for purchasing electric cars mostly went to people who were already wealthy.
Ubuntu 9.04, because of WUBI (anyone remember that?). Unstable as hell, but allowed you to run a near bare metal Linux install without the hassle of setting up dual-booting and a separate partition. Liked Ubuntu it so much that I soon replaced Windows completely. Currently running Debian, so I haven’t strayed far from the family.