Linux system for free? It won't be any harder to learn.

I am not a naive user and I found Linux difficult to get my head round. At the time (Radio Station) we had a guy who's principle income is sorting PCs of all vintages for people. He didn't fly though the learning curve. And all that free stuff - is also different (or did I mean alien?). And BTW he told me he won't be installing Win10 until at least SP1.

Reject evangelists. Go with what you know, and the learning curve is 10/20% compared with an alien OS.

If Win 10 will not run "fit and forget" Office then I don't want it. Trust a third party? With all my songs? My code? Hmmmm.... And pay for the privilege? I think NOT.

& I have been programming computers since 1969 - from embedded machine code & FORTRAN to C++ and currently a shed load of VBA/JavaScript. If I find Linux alien then a guy who just wants a tool that works not a geek hobby is advised to stick with what they know. A lot of differences I have experienced with Micro$oft were with Office 2007 cf 2003. Win XP, Vista and 7 are much closer.

Anyone ever tried driving a vehicle with the steering at the back? It is alien and scratches and bumps occur till you have driven well up the learning curve. Or the bank! Strange takes time. For minor benefits? And usually a few losses you cannot work around ergonomically.

Why are there no industrial Macs? Or Linux? Because you cannot get the cards that do very specific things, and the software to interface with the OS. In the industrial computer field it is PC or struggle (at a cost). Industry invest a lot of man-hours in the learning curve of its employees, they stick with one OS. For good reason.

The OP-er is the focus for the discussion. If the guy used an OS and he wants to be up and running just like he used to he will expect it to look like it used to. I don't recall he asked what was the most intriguing OS to learn. He wanted jargon explained. Methinks he is already way down the track of "similarity".

USB 3 and SSD and possibly HDMI are the most valuable assets to consider and they don't pre-suppose an OS AFAIK.

Good Luck Fred.