If you're interested in learning about and becoming more comfortable with Linux, there is an operating system I've used since it appeared. The name is Puppy Linux and while the originators will tell you they didn't intend it to be an operating system, I can't for the life of me understand why they'd say that. It is a lean system and part of its fame is that it can work on a computer totally lacking a hard drive. In fact, I ran a laptop which had no hard drive for a couple of years using a CD and a thumb drive only. No virus risk and no intrusion risk at all. My favorite version of it is TahrPup 6.0. There are other versions of TahrPup available now, but I haven't tried them. It is compatible with Ubuntu programs and you can run any Microsoft program using WINE (an acronym for Wine Is Not an Emulator). But when you install it, you'll see it comes with word processing, spreadsheet, secure web browser, firewall, paint programs, draw programs...a lot more than you would expect for a small (and of course free) Linux distro. You can add as much to it as you wish. And depending on how much ram you have, it can be fast. This system works by pushing as much of the operating system into ram as possible. So access is faster.
I'm not really a fan of Ubuntu but at the same time I should tell you I'm ok with the system. Bottom line is it has become larger and more bloated and more commercial and that's what I don't like about Windows. I'm not a fan of Apple, either...for some of the same and for some different reasons.
I think it boils down to what you use your computer for, actually. Most people I talk to don't use their computer for 1/10 of what it was designed to do.
