Fellow non-techy here. I’ve been on Linux for years, only leaving Windows for one specific program (that I finally found a way of using on Linux). It’s easy. Obviously the techy people can explain any risks better, but if you want to dual boot, or even nuke windows, it’s super easy. Etch it to a flash drive, there are a million YouTube videos on how, and boot from the USB. There’s a GUI wizard that walks you through everything. Mint is great, and the UI is familiar to windows users. I prefer Fedora, because I wanted a change from Windows, and it’s fun and intuitive to use GNOME for me. The Linux of today isn’t difficult to use. In fact, unless you go with something like Gentoo, you’ll probably never have to open terminal if all you do is web based stuff. It’s pretty freaking sweet. If you go with anything that uses GNOME as the DE look up extensions. They make it better and more customizable.
Biggest thing, just back everything up you might want to keep. I got nextcloud through hertzner. 15 bucks a month for 5 TB of storage. Backed up both laptops, my phone, my tablet, and have my brother, my mom, my sister in law and my friend on there, too. It’s worth doing if you’re concerned about losing important documents or photos
Fellow non-techy here. I’ve been on Linux for years, only leaving Windows for one specific program (that I finally found a way of using on Linux). It’s easy. Obviously the techy people can explain any risks better, but if you want to dual boot, or even nuke windows, it’s super easy. Etch it to a flash drive, there are a million YouTube videos on how, and boot from the USB. There’s a GUI wizard that walks you through everything. Mint is great, and the UI is familiar to windows users. I prefer Fedora, because I wanted a change from Windows, and it’s fun and intuitive to use GNOME for me. The Linux of today isn’t difficult to use. In fact, unless you go with something like Gentoo, you’ll probably never have to open terminal if all you do is web based stuff. It’s pretty freaking sweet. If you go with anything that uses GNOME as the DE look up extensions. They make it better and more customizable.
Biggest thing, just back everything up you might want to keep. I got nextcloud through hertzner. 15 bucks a month for 5 TB of storage. Backed up both laptops, my phone, my tablet, and have my brother, my mom, my sister in law and my friend on there, too. It’s worth doing if you’re concerned about losing important documents or photos