I am reminded of a very profound observation made in this column a couple of years back by another user: "Linux is an excellent operating system - until you try and do something with it ... ". I tried it; more than once, but it always disappointed. I found it infinitely more complicated to learn much less master, and it seemingly almost always needed to be updated or adjusted. At the end of these experiments, the hassle of deleting the Linux partitions, and then re-discovering and authorising the valid boot sector caused more than enough angst. To those who can feel comfortable and confident in the environment, I salute you! You are able to function at an entirely different to that which I was able to achieve.
However - and to my surprise - I'm finding w7 and W10 are going along OK and working well in almost all I ask of them. And XP on a couple of other machines still purrs along on a couple of programs which I need to use occasionally - off line of course!