thanks. i am ready and will be patient.
what is a USB flash drive? i have a USB memory stick. is it that?
what is a distro?
i want to be able to access my DNA tests, use Ancestral Quest for geneology, family tree, look at youtube and dailymotion, make word and excel documents (using wps office 2016 since i do not have office 2013), download photos from my Samsung smartphone and camera, use facebook and twitter, paint or an equivalent,. email, track email, play cds and watch dvds, surf on the internet and print, Avast and Malware Bytes i think that covers what i use ( just like most people i believe).
is there anything that cannot be done if you have Linus instead of windows?
OK, great start! Yes, a flash drive is the same as a memory stick. You may want to get some spares as they are fairly cheap these days (you don't need huge capacity for Linux).
A "distro" is short for "distribution" which is what each Linux is called. I sometimes say "Linux version" but that isn't technically correct unless I mean what Linux
kernel version. The
kernel is the heart of of any operating system, and Linux distributions use a Linux kernel. There are about 300 active Linux distributions, but you don't need to learn about or try that many!
A few trials is usually enough to get someone started, and there are several that are the most popular for new users.
You won't need Avast or Malware Bytes with Linux. The likelihood of getting a virus is next to zero, and the probability of even getting malware is very low too. Keeping safe from those things is something to discuss further as we go though.... because first, we have to find out if the next thing is a deal-breaker for you....
Watching DVD's, online videos, Facebook, WPS Office, a Paint-like program.... all of that will be fine on Linux. The big one that could be trouble is Ancestral Quest because they do not provide a version of their software for Linux. It is possible that we can make it work in Linux, but it may not work. And by "accessing your DNA tests".... that depends on how you do that. I can log into Ancestry.com with any web browser to see my DNA info there, and if that is all you mean then it is not an issue. But we'll need to know more about how you access those tests in order to know if Linux will work or not.
So, I understand if Ancestral Quest will be a deal-breaker for you. That is one of the drawbacks that sometimes keeps people tied to Windows forever. There is other genealogy software that can run in Linux, but it is a question of whether you're willing to switch to other software. Sometimes importing/exporting .gedcom files doesn't work properly and data can be lost, and no one wants that either.
Another possibility is that you can split your hard drive into two partitions, and keep running Windows in one partition, and then install Linux in the other partition. However, this can be quite tricky for a new user too... and if there is a problem along the way you could potentially (worst case) make your Windows unusable or delete it by accident. This does not let you escape from Windows though... which is what you first indicated you want to do.
One more possibility: There is a program called VirtualBox (
https://www.virtualbox.org) that you can install on Windows, and then when you run VirtualBox, you can install a full blown Linux distro as a "virtual machine". This will not harm your Windows and it gives a pretty good method for using and learning Linux. You need a fair amount of RAM because this is like running two full operating systems at the same time.... I'm not sure how much exactly, but probably at least 4 GB.
With the dual-boot or virtual machine options, you could then test out Linux to see if Ancestral Quest can be made to work, or not. But making it work can be a complicated process too, so I'm not sure if you're ready to jump into that kind of project yet.
OK, so where do you think you're at now?