Hi Peter, well I will add my anecdotes to all the others:-

At home I run Linux and have done for over 20 years. Initially this was to get beyond windows 95 and get under the hood, plus cost saving, plus avoiding some of the lock-in with microsoft. Settled now on Ubuntu and Mint (different machines) which have been very reliable and have all the programs I have ever needed. With more and more services going online it makes day to day use pretty easy. I have also used chromebooks and a mac but the simplicity of use (familiarity) keeps me running Linux.

At work we have gradually moved from XP to 7, some 10 and now 11 machines (still have a mixture). Win 11 is pretty stable now I think, we buy new machines with it pre-installed and it works well (Pro edition). Obviously cost matters but for a business is doable. The servers run Linux for reliability. From your question you may be just upgrading the existing hardware, in which case Linux is the obvious choice being less dependant on specific requirements - Win 11 won't run on just any old junk!. If buying new then as others have said, depends on use. Top tip - get plenty of memory.

Microsoft keep asking for yearly sub and passwords than I have forgotten. Linux would be fine if it can work the paint app which I use for technical diagrams and sketches.

I take it that Linux and Android are compatible as they all do docs, spreadsheet, adobe, powerpoint, MP4, youtube, I think? 

CliveS

Android is a derivative flavour of linux, running a program written by the chaps at google, that operates telephone hardware. However, the kernel is usually locked from the user, so you can only run 'apps' prepared in a certain way.

there are several paint-like programs written for Linux, with varying degrees of complexity, layering rendering blending etc. there are also far better dedicated programs that are intended for drawing and simulating circuits etc.
But, and it is a hurdle that entrenched users sometimes  struggle with, none of them are truly identical to the windows equivalent, and some learning from scratch will be unavoidable.
The only things that up can be sure require no re-learning of course are on-line tools that are in a web-browser.
Mike.

CliveS said:

Microsoft keep asking for yearly sub and passwords than I have forgotten.

It's worth knowing that you do not have to have a Microsoft account to run Windows (including W11). I discovered this after MS locked up my laptop so securely in Win 10 that I had to do a clean reinstall and lost all my data - I now use a "local account" on all our home PCs which gets around this. I have no MS passwords on any of our home PCs, including one that runs W11.

It's not obvious, but it is there.

I also use a one-time install version of MS Office, so overall I don't pay any annual fees to MS. Not sure how much longer that will be possible with Office though, they are really pushing Office 365 (quite understandably).

Thanks, Andy

CliveS said:

Microsoft keep asking for yearly sub and passwords than I have forgotten.

It's worth knowing that you do not have to have a Microsoft account to run Windows (including W11). I discovered this after MS locked up my laptop so securely in Win 10 that I had to do a clean reinstall and lost all my data - I now use a "local account" on all our home PCs which gets around this. I have no MS passwords on any of our home PCs, including one that runs W11.

It's not obvious, but it is there.

I also use a one-time install version of MS Office, so overall I don't pay any annual fees to MS. Not sure how much longer that will be possible with Office though, they are really pushing Office 365 (quite understandably).

Thanks, Andy