General :: Website Compatibility Checks For IE/ Printer With No Driver ?

Currently have just Linux on my main computer (brother built it for me, knew I wanted to try Linux, so just put Ubuntu on).

Old computer (very old, 256MB Ram etc) runs Windows 2000 very slowly, currently will only start up in safe mode (not sure whether this is because it's not currently attached to the router or printer, or whether more serious).

I'd like to put linux (qimo, DSL or puppy probably) on the old computer so my 3-year-old can use it instead of demanding the penguin game (tuxpaint) whenever I want to use my computer!

So, wondering whether to try and shrink the windows partition or whether to just go for linux only. That computer was second-hand as well, so I don't have the windows disks.

The two things I'm worried about:

1) sometimes do some web design, and how would I check whether IE will display my pages without strange problems 'cos it doesn't follow the standards...

2) printing out photos at short notice: husband picked the printer so we're lumbered with a canon pixma MX700. It can do basic printing but won't communicate with linux to do photo quality (no linux drivers...) If I have plenty of time I use a photo printing service such as photobox.

Any thoughts how I can get round these problems so I can just jettison windows without worry? I don't have the spare cash to buy windows 7 or whatever to run in a virtual box...