I've been in a pattern of getting a new computer with Windows, enjoying the ease of use of windows until windows stopped working properly, or I left the laptop out in the rain (alcoholic for 12 years B)) after that I would go back to you some profoundly junky old computer and happily use Linux for years before ending up with another computer, using Windows for a while.
I've been doing it since my parents bought me a laptop in 2007 that had absolutely no business attempting to run Windows Vista, so lots of "computer is for music, movies, irc and dungeon crawl stone soup" over the years.
I remember clearly the first time I put mint on a old laptop and you didnt have to connect via ethernet to download shit to TRY to get the wifi working. It just worked. And it worked every time since then
o7