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Microsoft really wants Local accounts gone after it erases its guide on how to create them
(www.xda-developers.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Linux Mint (or Linux Mint Debian Edition), is one of the most user friendly Linux distributions out there. This is especially so for people used to Windows.
You can run Mint on a bootable USB drive, fire it up, and get a sense of how it feels running on your home setup. I'd highly recommend trying this with a few different Linux distros, to find one that you like.
What a beautiful thing