well thats easy when there windows breaks you put fedora/debian on it with the programs they use i.e msn open office vlc and so on then a quick 10 minute lesson and your done
If it isnt in the repository it can be a bitch to get it to run. i prefer compiling from source then using rpm because you can see why it fucked and and how to fix it.
701sd does "not" have a ath0 wireless card. it has a realtek 8180se which is a pain to get working on the current kernel (believe me i just did it). but if you do get one i can help you get it working.