proN00b

I REALLY want to leave Windows. But I need a plan that I can understand.
I expect this transition to take years with a lot of learning.

I have to be in FULL control of the timing of restart for updates.

Very soon I want to buy a new computer as breakdown cover alternative.
I want that backup machine sooner than I can learn everything about Linux.
I have only one computer (Lenovo 17" laptop, Windows 10).

I need to transition from Windows to Linux, from Excel to some alternative, from VBA to some alternative, from WinCMD (the original version of Total Commander) to some alternative and an alternative to Notepad++ if it doesn't work on Linux.

I'm forced to use Windows 10 by a breakdown of my old computer that was on Windows 8.1.
I already bought the new laptop before the breakdown but I was not yet ready for the transition when the breakdown happened.

The reason why I refused to update the old computer to Windows 10 was that Windows 10 has no option to entirely disable a forced restart for updates.

Now I'm stuck with random restarts without my permission.
I know about postponing for 7 days in the settings, but that works only up to a month, and it does not allow to set a specific timing anyway.

I HATE Microsoft. I'm pulling my hair EVERY TIME they kill my work.

I'm looking for advice for
(1) choosing the right
(1.1) hardware (CPU, RAM, storage etc) that will allow smooth transition (I know about SLIMBOOK), it may be laptop or desktop (minimum 17 inch display with FullHD, no other screen resolution)
(1.2) OS with commercial support that I can rely on as a customer (Zorin?)
(1.3) fast and customizable desktop environment where a dark theme works flawlessly, I don't need animation to show what I just did, I use keyboard shortcuts like ALT-TAB to swap between windows FAST and control most actions with the keyboard (Cinnamon? XFCE?)
(1.4) file manager (Double Commander? Krusader? Can I back up their settings and use a text editor to modify their ini files or some similar settings files? Do they allow personalized button bars with my own icons that can run terminal commands, e.g. open a file in the appropriate software or open specific directories in the file manager or run internal commands of the file manager?)
(1.5) scripting language and spreadsheet software combination (python? Open Office? Can I create buttons like on the quick access toolbar of excel?)
(1.6) A WAY TO RUN EXCEL AND THE VISUAL BASIC EDITOR in Linux until I learn a replacement language to VBA and I rewrite my VBA code in that other language (WINE? Bottles?)
(2) choosing the right sequence to get and learn the alternatives.

I don't have customers.
I do my banking through my laptop, using Brave or Chrome, and I use an Android phone for verification.

This can change in the long term:
Most of my VBA code is in 3 xlam files which weigh total 395KB.
The most frequently used parts are probably less than 5% of that.
The VBA code is usually simple, used mostly to find and copy specific data from CSV to a spreadsheet or to the clipboard or to format spreadsheets (e.g. make the opened CSV black with white text).
I don't plan intensive coding for now. I just need to use what I already programmed.
I can see myself replacing that with an alternative language, but I will have to learn it, so I can't leave Excel immediately.
I expect python to be a likely reasonable choice but I have not started learning it yet beyond watching a few tutorial videos. I attempted some installations to start learning python, but wasn't able to get it all to work. All of that was on the old computer that broke down, and I don't have time to repeat any of that setup now.

This can change in the VERY long term: I code in Pinescript on Tradingview, and I use Brave or Chrome to view the results and download them in CSV files for more advanced analysis.
Most of the analysis is done through spreadsheet formulas, not VBA code.
Long term I might learn to code communication with the API of some trading platform directly, circumventing Tradingview.

I'm using Brave to download CSV files for my work.
Then I deal with them through my VBA code run from various means in Excel:
the Quick Access Toolbar buttons,
the ribbon (added my own tab),
buttons on worksheets.

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