There are different flavors of Linux out there; I chose Ubuntu. It seems to be the most popular. Download the server version here: 16.04 is the version with long-term support, which is what I used. Remember, the server version has no GUI. I encourage you to take the plunge, but if you just can't do it then you would just fall back to Ubuntu Desktop or Mint (which is based on Ubuntu). Everything I say below is based on the command line interface.