The great thing about a lot of very good Linux distros is that you can run them from whats called a 'live USB' meaning you download the ISO of the distro you like the look of, put it on a USB drive, then reboot your PC and boot to the USB you just created (you might need to alter your BIOS boot order). There's a full guide here. The point here is to give the distro a try without putting anything on your harddrive so Windows is safe. If you like it, most distros will let you dual boot so you can have Windows and your linux distro on one machine.

In terms of the right distro a lot depends on what you'll be using the PC for. For a really good, stable general purpose distro I think Mint is perfect.

just mentioning zorin. its not the latest but its goal is basically to have a familiar interface and have a lot out of the box. So right after install you have browser, libre office, photo/video/audio basics, rdp client, and wine/playon linux so you can right click a windows exe and run it or install it. Its ubuntu so often times other software, for instaces most other browsers will auto detect the operating system and give you the download option which will activate the software installer to install it on a double click. auto updates and such with a pop up just like windows update but also doing all your software.

Honestly Linux these days isn't all that hard if you have a little patients. Just install Linux mint and take it slow. Remember to not download anything from the internet since software is designed to be installed via the software manager which uses apt or flatpak under the hood.

When you do finally get into an installation (dual boot or live usb) just remember that this a whole new OS. And things that you thought about how "computers" worked was actually how "windows" worked. I just want to make sure you set expectations, because you could easily frustrate yourself when you start expecting things to behave a certain way.

Hopefully, you learn a lot from this experience. I'm excited for you!

• Do you have a spare computer? If yes, install Linux on it. Don't touch your main PC for the moment. If not try Linux in a virtual machine (you can search about that).
• What version of Linux? There are plenty choice. I would suggest Linux Mint, because... it's the one I am using (50+ years old, not a geek that switched after 35+ years only using Apple ;) and it works really well out of the box (heck everything was configured without anything to do on my part, even my Airpods that I never managed to get to work on other distributions).
• Don't try to learn everything at once. In the end it's just a computer that do computer stuff only with a lot more freedom and respect for the user, aka us. What do you use your Windows computer for the most? Do the same thing under Linux and see how well it goes. But...
• Be ok with the fact that you will need to change habits. Apps may be different, menus maybe differents, and also Linux is not a copy of Windows (or macOS), it's its own thing. Habits are hard-wired into our brain and can be very difficult to change, like really. It's not Linux's fault. It's not even a fault, that's how human brain works.

Edit (I forgot the most important!): Hi and welcome ;)

Bit of a vague post, but I suggest Trying any distro honestly. You can load it on a USB and use it directly off the USB, no commitments. I bit more of a commitment, dual boot a Linux OS. Very easy and allows access to Linux and windows.

I use Ubuntu and enjoy It a lot.mint is another good one I used to use.

I would also suggest figuring out what apps you need to see if they work on Linux, or if there are workable alternatives.

linux mint lmde is what i like to recommend to anyone who wants to switch over to linux w minimal learning curve.

hope this helps, too: https://linuxjourney.com/

I think the best tip is to not be too hard on yourself. Using linux doesn't mean abandoning Windows, even if you feel overwhelmed and need to go back to Windows, that is totally okay, just try again when you feel comfortable.

If you are confused please ask questions, people love to help beginners. Finally, like others, I think mint is a great starting point. If you have time, you can also follow some linux content creators on YouTube or PeerTube.

For a total beginner, I'm gonna spell it out for you out of the gate. Linux has never been the hard part of linux. The biggest hurdle of linux—the one thing beginners waste the most time on, old timers always insist you should learn, and won't actually give you much value in return—is package management. Package management is an unnecessary but unavoidable part of traditional linux usage. For everything else, linux just works more or less the way almost all other computing devices commonly behave. Better in some regards, different in others, but always sensible and familiar.

Now, there's a way to bypass this hurdle and just go straight to the fun part of using your computer. Use an immutable distro. I recommend Aurora as a good general purpose OS. But anything from the universal blue project is good. Bluefin for a different style of desktop environment, Bazzite for gaming. There are some nags here and there, and you can learn about the whole terminal commands and package management over time at your own pace, or maybe not at all, but you'll always have a functioning system. Software is installed from an online store via containers. There's little to no management as your data is always separate from the OS.

If you've ever used an android phone, then you've already used an immutable system. This is just better and more open for the desktop and laptops over Linux. But they're the same principles. Let the experts cook and you focus on using your computer.