i have been running Linux for over 8 years. but i think my hard ware is letting me down. my system was built and maintained by my son. with all most no trouble till now. but he is not near now to maintain it now. and he is saying i might want to go to Windows. and new hardware. as my Linux friends have brain washed me to thinking Windows is not as good as Linux. i think that my support people is very important. what think?

Right now I am back on Windows 10. I like it so far. I did have to go through and turn off as much of the "nosy" stuff as I could. I ran Mint 17 for a good while because I got fed up with W8. If you are having trouble with the distro you now have, why not consider another distro? Like Zorin maybe. Zorin was meant to take the place of XP. It doesn't take a lot of resources to run it. You might even want to try Puppy Linux.

In a lot of ways, Linux is better. It doesn't have the problems that windows has. To run Windows you have to be up on security. Where Linux, You download the ISO, Use a free image burning software and burn it to a disk. You're ready to go. You don't have to worry about viruses either.

I'm not familiar with windows 10, so things may have changed. But for most of the past 15 years I'd say that - as long as you use a mainstream distro on supported hardware - linux systems are less trouble than windows systems.

Of course, if you get unsupported hardware, or a poor distro, there will be problems.

If you are thinking of getting new hardware, I would recommend a 2015 Chromebook. They are easier and more trouble free than anything else out there. (And, you can run ubuntu in a chroot on most of them!)

Well, here are my initial thoughts on the subject. When I replace my computer (ohhh, every 4 or 5 years or so), I've been able to do so pretty consistently for around $300, $350 or so - and that's with getting a "known" brand like ASUS, Dell, etc. So I personally wouldn't spend much trying to resolve a hardware issue, it's easier & cheaper to say 'screw it' & migrate to a new box.

Once you do that, it's probably going to be running some flavor of WinDoze - but Linux installation routines have gotten so easy that you can pretty much accept all of the defaults & boot into a workable system. Migrating applications/data is where things can get tricky.

Finally, you've said "...but he is not near now to maintain it now..." - I'd recommend that you have him take a look at TeamViewer.com. While my Dad was alive, that's what I used to provide "tech support" for him, even though we were separated by almost 100 miles - we'd just hop on the phone, set it up, & have a good conversation while I took care of the problem. (I *SURE* wish to God I could do that one more time...) With any luck, that'll work for you guys as well.

Good luck.