Yes, many of your Windows programs aren't available on Linux, but some of them are and there are Linux programs that can do just as well as your old XP software.

The first part is easy: Just download Linux from Mint or Ubuntu or whatever site hosts the version you want. That download will likely consist of a single ISO file.

Linux is a good alternative to Windows: It's free, runs stably, and is supplied with updates for a long time. We present three systems that look particularly similar to Windows.