Used Linux Mint/Ubuntu after 20+ years of windows and it’s very easy. Most programs have similar equivalents that can run on both windows and Linux (Word/Powerpoint/etc. -> Open Office or Libreoffice, Email client -> thunderbird, etc.), linux distrobutions have their own ‘app store’ so its easy as searching and clicking install.
Gaming is somewhat new to Linux but you can install Steam; for gaming specifically there are some os’ that others know more about than me but Steam OS can be installed unofficially as Holoiso with amd pcs.
Overall you might want to try double booting (windows + linux on the same harddrive) first because of gaming. Linux does detect other os’ and allow the dual booting installation process to be easier.
Three things to make sure of:
-
getting to the linx installation disk from boot is a pain on pre-made windows machines, search for things to change in bios with a youtube video or wiki so it goes to the usb first
-
on the live usb/disk (your installation disk) enable wifi, open a web browser to test the internet is working plus sound and other insert thumb drives/cd disks (it should work on common distros). Some distributions don’t play nice or load on some pcs.
-
create a backup windows disk and save important files before entering linux in case the installation goes wrong
