Micro Computers? (Opposite St.Mary's /MRI) Manchester, will knock the pants off Maplin, pricewise .Tom's Hardware is an excellent site to get a realistic current view of the market.
I was recently given a new box with the latest Ubuntu. the old, 32 bit machine was not upgradeable (I was told) It ran the same version of Ubuntu for about 8 years ,with no software upgrades!
It started getting a bit flaky at the end, but it was 10 years old and only switched off when a power-cut ocurred, or in later life , if it crashed.....always seemed to save the last page , etc.
Have Opera, Firefox and now an unused Chrome. Once I mastered transferring Tape-based games to disc , on the Amstrad 6128, I lost enthusiasm and the kids got an old 286 PC and left me far behind.
I am told Windoze is now very good, very stable and the "blue screen of death" is long gone.....I CBA to learn how to use it....
Linux all free and developers across the world do it for the challenge and respect of their peers.....not because "the boss" expects to see "something" for his money.