Don't fear, Linux won't bite you!
This post born from a discussion, "arguing" with a friend about pros and cons on Windows/Linux.
I was a Windows user for many years, I could not imagine how Linux is because, for many years the installation process was complex, very unintuitive, not working easily at all. Also for many years my interaction with Linux was on shell level, using few commands for testing crons or other simple things like creating/removing folders and so on.
In the last 2-3 years installation process was optimized, simple to be made. Not in all distros. The second big advantage for testing Linux distros is using VM solutions. For many years I was afraid to damage my Windows OS installing Linux, but that issue was fixed with VM, you can install everything in VM without fear. Using virtual machines like VirtualBox or VMWare, you can test different Linux distros and chose whatever you like. So easy is that. You'll see that not every distro works perfectly on install, many fail, but you can do a short list with winners like Ubuntu, CentOs, Mint, Debian and openSuse.
If you don't write code and use services like elasticsearch, node.js or other, You can't see how practical Linux is. For me is gold mine because with one command line I can install whatever I want in 10 seconds instead of spending hours on Windows, trying to understand why the hell Windows does not run a simple service or does not want to install a service. For example, I've installed elasticsearch on 2 Windows, running on VM, it took sometimes 15 min or 3 hours, doing the same steps. Ubuntu does this in 5-15 secs for example using apt-get.
For regular users is not important, but for Geeks, people involved in IT Business is normal to care about time invested in instalation, systems maintenance and Dev Tools and we can say that is even crucial.
Another advantage of Linux distros is diversity. You can chose between Gnome, KDE or Unity Desktops. Some of distros look alike Windows Desktop, so, is easily to find your programs and tools when you migrate from Windows. Linux is like coffee, you can chose between espresso, cappuccino and other choices.
Other advantage of Linux is that comes free. You can by any notebook or desktop without OS and save al least 100-200 Eur/Dollar. Isn't that great too? :)
Not at last, you have a big community, you can ask and get quick responses for different issues.