For a pi project I'm working on, I needed to do some stuff on a linux PC, and Ubuntu was the recommended OS.
Up until now, I've avoided linux OS's other than on my Pi's, I have windows 7 and 10 on this PC, and an older macbook.
But I followed the instructions here to make a bootable usb stick
https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#0I used ubuntu 16.04.4 lts
https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktopThen booted from the stick on my PC, with a SSD I was no longer using, and followed these instructions to install to the ssd
https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-install-ubuntu-desktop#0It was easy to pretty easy (IMHO), and free if you have a spare ssd/hdd you can use. You could even install along side windows, but I prefer to put on its own drive. My PC is open, and I swap drives if I want to change the OS.
It came right up, and I started a terminal window and installed SSH server so I can SSH into this PC from my other PC's, or even my phone or ipad.
Considering how easy it was to get going, now I'm not sure why I didn't do this before lol.
And the interface seems pretty user friendly.
Randy