(quoted from post at 14:19:44 09/04/16) I have a book "Running Linux" and it looks like I have to know Dos to use it. All kinds of symbols and small & capitol letters. I thought it was similar to Windows. I also have a disc of Red Hat somewhere but am afraid to try it.
It is similar to Windows, and you don't need to know how to use Dos to use it. Although I can use the command line, and do because it's a shortcut for some things, It's been several years since I would have had to at all. And if you have a Red Hat disc around, you don't want to try it as stated, it will be old. As long as your computer is compatible, which most are these days, you can make a disk (free download, use a cd or usb), make your computer boot/start from it, and try it out BEFORE installing it. Don't like it, restart, remove disk, back where you started, no changes.
Not everything works, but a lot of stuff does. HP printers are easiest, I use Canon, some don't work, some require work because not everyone supports it.
Download this.
https://rufus.akeo.ie/ And if your computer is relatively new, or at least with say 1GB ram if you know, download this, large download, may take a while, and careful if you have a low data cap.
http://ftp.crifo.org/mint-cd//stable/18/linuxmint-18-cinnamon-64bit.iso Plug in a usb drive, start the first one, the line "create a bootable disk using", change the dropdown to "iso", button to the right of that, click it and find the mint file you downloaded from above and select it, click start, wait. Then, reboot your computer, and you need to make it start from USB (that will vary, may need to look it up for your model). It will either work or it won't to try out. If you don't like the look, we can suggest another that looks different, but this is one of the most popular ones.
You can use a cd/dvd disc if you want, different steps, if that doesn't work.
If you like what you see after the trial run, it's easy to install, only one step to be "careful" of, the "partition" step to make sure you don't erase Windows if you don't want to, very easy handful of questions to answer (or select what's already selected). But you can install it and keep Windows exactly as it is. When your computer turns on, you get a selection of the new, or Windows, restart to switch between them.
Plain Ubuntu looks different than Windows, although not hard, I would not suggest it if you want something similar to Windows. What I suggested has a bar at the bottom, "start" like button, etc. Of course programs have different names. But, Firefox, Chrome, etc. can be installed. Good typing, photo and video editing, etc. are available.
