I can no longer activate Windows XP on my desktop computer, even using the various go-arounds offered on the net. I can afford Windows 10 and so on, but I have given too many hours over the years to its Regedit, restore yada features. I do not need bells and whistles. I need a decent word processor, spreadsheet, pdf viewer. I have a small Chromebook as my second computer. For anything serious, I can use my little Chromebook or go to the public library.

I am ready to try a free alternative operating system, such as Linux's Ubuntu.

If you use a free operating system, can you post your thumbs up or thumbs down for it compared to Windows?