Scribblers Query - Any Advice On Switching to Linux?

I am going to be needing to replace my Windows 7 computer and I really, really, really don't want to replace it with a Windows 10 computer because I friggin' hate the Windows 10 updates - I went back to Windows 7 when the free Windows 10 update that Microsoft had to give out because Windows 8 was such a total piece of complete crap crashed due to one of the interminable series of involuntary Windows 10 updates.  

I never bought the Apple mystique, having no desire to pay so much to join a cult devoted to the phony faux moral superiority that issued out of Steve Job's ass.  Not only was the ridiculous price tag absurd, the much vaunted quality of its operating system was more than matched by the load of shitty hardware they sold and, on top of that, the many service agreements that totally screwed over their customers as their really shitty design and materials choices resulted in broken multi-thousand dollar computers and multi-hundred dollar fixes issued by the company.  I can't remember which one of their line would fail to boot due to their crappy design choices failing but customers who had paid big bucks for the piece of crap found out that by the contract they'd had to accept,  in order to have it fixed under warranty, it had to be bootable.   

But this isn't about either of those tech companies, this is about Linux and the really, really cheap Linux based computers that, with all the trimmings, cost less than $150.  I've read that the old used Dells I've been buying when a friend was done with his and the one I bought refurbished form Dell  don't take to Linux very well and I'm too old and computer unsavy to want to struggle with trying to make it fit.  I'm even willing to limit it to going online and doing my blogging and some news reading, maybe a little listening.  I don't need to watch movies and I don't play games - yech.  My alternative is to strip down one of the old Windows computers to run Windows 7 as long as that will last without - huh - "updates" and to just wipe it down and reinstall if it becomes infected.  But I'm afraid I might remain alive and functional enough so that, eventually, I'll wish I'd learned to use Linux so I figure I may as well learn it fresh.

Any advice?