@mooseandriosmom You're welcome. Check out the links here https://linuxmint.com/ if you need help. The Mint community is friendly. You'll find plenty of company, people saying "they're never going back". But take your time and just be aware that it is different. One bonus is that since Mint is based on Ubuntu, and this is based on Debian, online searches for information can yield several useful results right away. They're fundamentally similar and all are customizable w yr choice of software.

@mooseandriosmom One tip: best not to dual boot off one drive whatever you choose. Windows has a habit of wrecking things. It's not worth the risk. If you can parallel run for a while it may make switching easier. Many apps are identical: Thunderbird, Firefox, Chrome, Brave, Dropbox, eg, or functionally close enough (LibreOffice, Obsidian, Joplin eg) that the OS doesn't matter. And some are simply better. You can find options at https://alternativeto. net. It's a good place to start with a list.

@mooseandriosmom My personal fav reasons for preferring Linux include

* update the OS and ALL applications with a click, when you want to not when MS wants
* you can move a drive to a different computer and it will boot (Windows won't or will accuse you of piracy)
* works well on old hardware
* I can run Windows applications if I need to (I'm not a gamer / don't need costly graphics hardware). Currently just 1 application.
* I don't need anti-virus software

There are many more. Good luck.

@mooseandriosmom Linux Mint w Cinnamon desktop. It's sufficiently familiar that there's less to learn than moving from one version of Windows to another. It's community supported not commercial (I donate every month, many do). The nr 1 reason is the developers' commitment to the user experience - no surprises, breaking changes, or we know best attitudes. It's very popular, beginner friendly, and used by many who could use any distribution. See reviews on ZDnet by @sjvn & ExplainingComputers.com