I did this same move two years ago. Make a list of critical must have functions. Get a second storage drive like your current one, swap out the old and install Kubuntu. Get those critical apps installed and tested. Create a virtual machine out of your old primary drive. Boot that inside Linux when needed.

This is exactly what I did. Later I copied my old system to a VM and I boot it up inside Linux when needed.

Am I showing my age if I suggest ImageMagick?

I have Kubuntu running on an Intel Yoga from 2022. I’ve never been able to get the fingerprint reader or the keyboard backlight to work but otherwise everything else works great

I’d really like one that let me see options for the command I’m typing. Like if I type “dd” it shows me some of the options for the dd command like “if=” or “conv=”. Is there a fancy term like that?

Linux didn’t exist when I was in college but I did work on it’s predecessor Minix in Op Systems class in '89

I think it’s going to take a Microsoft catastrophe, something that disables machines for at least a few days. I’m thinking maybe a buggy windows update.

I have a CentOS 6.8 server that I backup with:

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb conv=sync,noerror bs=4M

Of course change the sda/sdb to whatever your source(backup drives are