Yes, Wifi drivers were a bit of a hassle. However there was this wrapper which allowed windows drivers to be used and it was integrated into the Ubuntu GUI.

It was the age of the live CD. You could run Linux from a CD easily. Trying out Linux was as easy as downloading an ISO, burning it, and booting from it. Print computer magazines included Linux live CDs like Knoppix and DVDs regularly. Installing was easy as well with a nice wizard guiding you through.

OpenOffice, VLC, Firefox, Thunderbird, GIMP all existed. Hell, Skype had an official Linux version.