I started playing with Ubuntu LINUXout 2014 with an old throwaway desktop. Within a year or so, I was fairly comfortable with it, and by 2016, I converted my main desktop and laptop to it. I'm writing this from a Dell Optiplex 7040 with a mfg date of 2014, and the latest Unbuntu LINUX distro. I've been on this hardware since 2016 and regularly upgraded the OS as new versions are released.
Rocky is right. His tastes in distros are bit different from mine, but that's just window dressing. His favorite, Mint, is geared towards stability and its close look and feel to Windows. I prefer performance and features. I'm getting all the new updates for my distro, but I could also dial it back if I wanted and maybe get a major upgrade only every 3 years or so. My user experience in non-Windows-like. However, I have learned to like it better. If I wanted, I could install an environment that was more Windows-like, but I've grown to like this one.
One of the big stumbling blocks folks have with LINUX is getting their Windows apps to run. I have several old turds that I find useful, and I spent the early years of my LINUX education working out that problem. I settled on using Q4 Wine. There are several similar WINE frontends. WINE itself is one of the neat features of LINUX. WINE (Wine Is Not and Emulator) is a whole Windows environment. Some of the WINE frontends have preloaded profiles for most Windows software. You just tell it what you're installing and it configures the environment so it will run well. WINE will work with Quicken and CAD software. You just have to do a little Google-Fu to get there.
That is one of the biggest hurdles: recognizing that the answers are right there for you. Unlike asking a question on 24hourcampfire and getting 10 pages of GFY and aleatory ramblings from old pissers, if I have a problem I am trying to sort out, I just go to my web browser search bar and type "UBUNTU How do I install Picasa?" or "UBUNTU How do I change the size of my mouse pointer?" I get page after page of answers, but usually get what I want in the first or second try. If you're asking the question, it's probably been asked before.
