Any other Linux Lovers here ??

Perhaps you may enjoy these things from Bryan Lunduke...
The last of a long series:

And before anyone shouts at me (or comes after me with a baseball bat) :
I now use and have always used many OSes including various Linux distros;
My preference leans towards those OSes which empower the user rather than handing over control to some company.

I was already on the scene when the (evil) EULA was invented & have watched the degeneration that it has caused.

A shame that very few folks have cared about the actual historical movements in the IT world as it more deeply & widely affects their lives than most are willing to be aware of.

My laptop dual boots Win10 and Linux Mint and I never boot into Win10.

The reasons are too numerous to list.

And I've converted my old WinXP laptops to either Mint or Chromium.

And I'm getting ready to set one of my Chromebooks up to dual boot with Linux Mint. The cool thing about that setup is that BOTH operating systems boot up, together, and you can hot switch back and forth between Chrome OS and Mint without having to restart.

I would be a Linux user except for one thing. There is no way to use one piece of software I need on Linux .

From time to time I do play around with some of the distros just for fun but do not use them full time since I need WIndows.

I did look a the Linux feature in Win 10 but it really was not of any practical use to me at least.

If ever it became possible to use Linux exclusively I would switch.

That being said, I cannot see Linux being an option for family or friends--they would not be willing to put the time in to learn to use it.

Linux Mint uses the "Cinnamon Desktop", by default, which was designed specifically with Windows users in mind. It's actually a smaller leap to go from Windows 7 to Linux Mint than it is to go from Win7 to Win10. There's virtually no learning curve.

And if you don't like the built-in office apps (they're actually very good, however) you can install Chrome browser and add the free extension for Office Online. Boom-- Microsoft Office on your Linux Computer, for free.

Also, you can run Windows programs, within Linux, using a program called WINE (WINdows Emulator).

I only had one program that didn't have a Linux version (Quickbooks) and, rather than use WINE, I installed it on the server at my store and I remote into it with Google Remote Desktop. I can get there in two clicks and, once I make it full screen, it's like it's installed on the computer I'm on.

And, since the server is backed up by Carbonite, it's actually safer there than on my laptop.

You might consider defragging your Windows computer and installing Linux Mint. It will automatically detect your Windows installation and safely install itself next to it-- and give you a menu, on boot up, that lets you choose which OS you want to boot into.

Once you're in Linux, use the Synaptics app manager (found in the menu and not to be confused with the Synaptics touchpad) to install Chrome browser. (Firefox is the default.)

Force yourself to use Mint for half a day and you'll never go back to Windows.

Thanks.

My problem is TurboTax does not work on Linux (at least I have not been able to get it to work).

Indeed I have tried to get TurboTax (Desktop version) to run in WINE without any success. It is possible to use the online version but that is limited.

Somehow or other I have become the unofficial tax helper for a number of family members. The online version just does not support all the needed forms for everyone's use.

Everything else I do works perfectly in Linux and if there were just me, that is what I would go with.

I've been all in with Linux distros for more than a few years now. I did not really use a pc or smartphone until about 6 or 7 years ago, and I started out with Apple and Windows products, but soon migrated to Linux products(Android phones+Linux OSs). I do have W10 installed and imprisoned on it's own disk, which I only use for my printers and a few other programs. I am currently running OBRevenge Linux( from a tip from Extraterrestrial_ Zoologist), an Arch distro, on a laptop and desktop.The open source nature of both Linux phones and OSs, compared to the closed nature of Apple and Microsoft products, is what suits me, and I enjoy the Linux forums. I have tried maybe 40+ Linux distros as a hobbie. Oh, and I like the free cost of Linux.

My Linux journey started way back when it was CLI only & X was just being born - in those days it was normal & expected to do everything via command line because all there was worked that way (the DOS era...).
Kept watch all the years between then & now and after everything got 'windows-ized' it was obvious to me that user's expectations had changed radically & that for Linux to be a viable option for more folks - it had to be doable via GUI & user-friendly (as in non-threatening) to the user's POV.
It finally reached that point a few years ago - right around when Android had begun to change, well...everything really.

Like it or not - Linux is by now already dominating the IT world whether folks wish to notice that fact or prefer not to see it.
Part of that dominance was (thankfully) driven by how M$ totally lobotomized all their products since just after XP.

So here is my own take on the best options for myself in the present time, OS-wise:
Familiarity & minimalism in the OS & GUI are requirements of mine - they have to be functional AND undemanding of attention - I always compare the OS to the foundation of a house - not something we should bother with much UNLESS it DEMANDS attention to remain solid so as to hold the rest of the stuff up reliably.

Both of my requirements are well met by Ubuntu Mate LTS - as long as that horrid Unity abomination is immediately removed.
WINE can be something of a PITA, but adding PlayOnLinux can be a big help if one has needed apps that are reasonably well suited to use that way (http://www.playonlinux.com/).

Since I have things that run best in their own OSes, I prefer to use Linux as a host OS, add in the free VMWare Player, and use a VM (made via P2V of my prior configuration) of XP as well as the old AndroVM.
This way I have familiarity in my minimalistic OS choice as well as faster than native usage of the 2 other OSes & their apps.

Most likely that all sounds overly complicated - but really all it took to do it was some searching, a little bit of learning & an even smaller amount of trial & error to get it set up well.

Lastly I wish to mention that when (IMO) Linux finally became Grandma & Grandpa friendly, 2 amazing things happened for me:
The 1st was setting up an 80+ year old friend with a variant of Ubuntu 11.04 LTS to replace XP - and that still serves him well every day maybe 6 or 7 years later - truly problem free & he is a total technophobe.

The 2nd was when I helped another friend who is in his 30's, but who was computer illiterate by his own preferences into a similar OS situation - only he also needed some windows software for his business besides...so=>
Enter VMWare Player and a windows VM for his needed apps.
Now he has been using that configuration for years already - and the only problem he ever had was when he got a different monitor & botched up changing the resolution - which required a little help from me - but that was the ONLY time ever since the beginning.

The main gain that windows users can get from moving into Linux on their PCs is lowered stress IMO;
This comes from its incredible reliability coupled with an absence of pretty much ALL the irritations which are so normal & accepted without question by most windows users...like:
Data losses...the need to be ever vigilant for trojans, viruses, other malware and even ransomware...endless scary updates that often break more than they ever fix...forced 'upgrades' necessitating changes they'd be happier without...etc., etc...

The tired old saying that says:
'Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know'
Applies totally in this matter - as it mostly fear of changes that keeps folks from making such a really good change.

Really funny to me is that it is likely that many folks would see the title of the video I posted here at the top - and without even viewing it (or maybe just a few minutes of it at most...) would conclude that Linux MUST indeed suck !!

A shame that NOT ONLY is the opposite of that both factual & true - but also that most of those very same folks likely spend much of their days using Linux on their smartphones without even knowing it.