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Noted. The other consideration is whether apps from small developers (sometimes just one person for a lot of the stuff I use) will work well in Linux (Mint).

What I got back for, for example, "Wavosaur" was a bit mixed, with a bit (not awful) of added complexity, and reports of "crackling" or "distorted" sound from some users.*

That said, I'll still have this laptop and my new Win 11 Pro desktop machine soon, to handle most of my web based work.

*From Brave Search:

Yes, Wavosaur can work on Linux Mint, although it is not a native Linux application. It runs using Wine, a compatibility layer that allows Windows applications to function on Linux systems. The software has been successfully tested on Linux Mint Maya and other distributions like Ubuntu and Zorin. To run Wavosaur on Linux Mint, users typically need to install Wine, download the Wavosaur Windows executable, and place the required mfc42.dll file in the same directory as the executable to resolve dependency issues. Some users have reported success with this setup, noting that VST plugins also function within Wavosaur on Linux. However, audio playback issues, such as crackling or distortion, have been reported by some users, potentially related to audio configuration or the specific hardware setup. While Wavosaur is not officially supported on Linux, its functionality on Linux Mint via Wine has been confirmed by multiple users.

At the other extreme(?), DosBox will apparently run fine under Linux, which definitely helps with a couple old DOS programs I still use.

Well this is one of those special cases where if you try it in wine and it doesn’t work, you may have to learn to use a native Linux app that is an alternative for Wavosaur.

https://alternativeto.net/software/wavosaur/

But yes DOSbox works... I have tested it with quite a few apps.