Is it a difficult task to change from Win 7 to Linux ?
I hope to find out it isn't, because otherwise I'm buying an overpriced Apple.
“Is it a difficult task to change from Win 7 to Linux ?”
It depends. One strategy is to use a minitower desktop computer for your efforts, especially if you add on a trayless hard disk drive dock in one of its exposed 3.5 inch drive bays (Bay ODD2). This approach allows you to shutdown the computer and swap the boot drive, operating system, and applications software without using dual boot or multiboot partitions on one hard drive. It also makes it easier to swap out a boot drive that has been compromised by malware and get back to work with an immediate swap in of the already prepared replacement boot drive and operating system. What this arrangement depends upon, however, is whether or not Microsoft has done any meddling with your system board or motherboard UEFI or BIOS, temporary or permanent, such as Secure Boot that is going to disable your Linux and/or do other destructive things to your computer. There are reports indicating some Samsung computers were bricked by these changes due to the interplay between Microsoft and the Samsung UEFI/BIOS on the system board. In other words, users who don’t know any better can end up having their computers temporarily disabled or permanently bricked when the Microsoft Windows 10 or recent Windows 7 and Windows 8.x updates interacts with vulnerabilities in the UEFI and/or BIOS of the computer.
Depends. What do you use your computer for?
For 90% of people it is easy to switch as long as you arnt using your computer for very specialized programs. Web, eMail, spreadsheets, word processing, photos, music are built into most distributions. Try Linux Mint. Very Windows like. You should get an option to run it from an installation disc to run it from the CD to look around in it and see if it meets your needs. Linux is rock solid, and since it is natively secure, no need to run anti virus. That overhead gone and the fact that it just runs natively more efficiently, and Bob’s your uncle.
You will find that there is less frustration with Linux for most applications compared to windows.
That being said, there is a learning curve for Linux. Not overwhelming but you need a little time with it to familiarize yourself with the way it operates.
I recommend using a dual boot system using Linux Mint along side of your current windows setup until you are comfortable with it. There are a few applications that won't run under Linux because they are proprietary software and don't have Linux support, these are becoming fewer as Linux develops. Also upgrades to the newest versions are free and generally easy to implement.
So, in my opinion, the change is not difficult compared with the alternative of sticking with windows.
Don’t believe all the wonderful claims about Linux, especially about Windows apps running under Wine.