Ive tried linux very casually in the past a few times and always gave it up within a few days because I was a gamer. This was long before Proton and Wine was a ton of fiddling around to get various games working.
I just got a new laptop 2 days ago just for some office type work and when setting it up I was too fed up with Microsoft and its Windows 11 Home S version that came installed. I couldnt figure out how to make a local account on the machine, even with tricks posted online like disable network connections and such. I think the “S” version really doesnt let you or maybe just one of the newest updates did away with things even more. Anyway, I was sick of it and so since it was an office only machine I decided I would seriously try Linux out. I did some research around for the “most windows like and easiest to use” linux. lol. There are a lot of them, but the one that caught my eye the most was Elementary OS and Zorin OS. I tested Elementary first as it had a bigger name, it was cool I guess but didnt actually install it. I then tried Zorin and immediately thought that this was it. So I installed that and been using it yesterday and today for some work and so far it has been great.
I did have a couple minor annoyances, like the emoji keyboard has ctrl+; mapped as how to get into emoji mode, and this takes precedence over any app running. So that meant in excel (excuse me, LibreOffice) I couldn’t enter todays date with a hotkey. I had to disable the emoji keyboard mapping and then it started working. ctrl+shift+: is still broken in excel though for a hotkey to enter the current time and I cant figure out where this is mapped to in the OS as it seems to do nothing. I could only work around this one by changing the hotkey in excel to ctrl+shift+" instead. So minor annoyances like that, and that are probably specific to Zorin and its pre-installed things like the emoji keyboard.
But anyway, loving it so far. It looks like Windows 7 in its stock config which is awesome, and comes pre installed with Firefox and LibreOffice. It even has the “home” folder and the sidebar and folders in it are exactly like Windows, so the transition is very easy here. It is built on top of Ubuntu LTS, which means app support is basically the best you can get as well since Ubuntu is so popular. I havent tried to install Steam yet as this is for office work, but I suppose it should work perfectly fine being effectively a skin on Ubuntu. I noticed they have a “pro” version for $45 that comes with themes that make it look exactly like Windows 11 or Mac OS, and come pre installed with video editing and modeling software. Not sure if Ill pay for the Pro version as I dont do those programs, and I have no interest in looking like the puke that is Windows 11.
Figured Id share my experience with Linux the past 2 days as you wanted an easy transition and I feel like I found that in Zorin OS.