You've sold me. Does anyone have a lightweight guide or something of a no-nonsense tutorial on how to do this without causing an even bigger headache than using windows?

Ubuntu with the Gnome Desktop works well as a family PC. Very easy installer with a GUI that walks you through everything.

https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop

Linux Mint is nice, but it's been a few years since I installed it. Back in 2018ish we had a lot of machines with old dual cores and 2-4GB of RAM that chugged on Windows. But after installing Linux Mint, they were given new life and ran very well.

https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/lates...

I have been daily driving Ubuntu Cinnamon at work for ~3 years and it works pretty well. Some minor bugs here and there, but I can't imagine going back to Windows for a work machine.

https://ubuntucinnamon.org

There is a bit of a learning curve for Linux, so might be worth dipping your toes in to start before you go 100%.