Disappointed by Brave.
It’s very slow.
Every time I open a new tab, the default page tries to sell me ads and cryptocurrency.
It follows what I hated about Firefox, that the view image (in same tab) option has been removed!
Will switch to Opera.
Opera feels a bit faster than Brave. There’s no advertising on the new tab screen.
However, there’s still no view image (in same tab) option on the right-click menu, like there used to be on Firefox. I really like having this option.
Is there any browser that still has this?
It’s still on Waterfox!
That’s my browser debate settled then.
It’s also running faster than either Brave or Opera.
IMO, this is the only sensible option
It’s not as scary as you think. I’ve done it before with no prior experience. There’s lots of great guides online of how to set up “dual boot” so you can choose Windows or Linux when you turn on. In essence:
Make a Windows recovery disc (or usb stick?) in case it all goes wrong (and backup your data but you already do that anyway, right? 
) - very important step. Hopefully you won’t need it but you don’t want to be without it if you do need it!
Pick a Linux distribution (if in doubt, Ubuntu seems to have a good balance of functionality, performance and aesthetics that probably suits most people, or Lubuntu if your machine is low spec or you favour performance over aesthetics)
Go to their website and download the “live install”
Follow the instructions to copy it to a usb stick and make it bootable
Restart laptop with usb stick in and follow the instructions to set up dual boot
Seems daunting if you’ve not done it before but most of the installers are pretty user friendly these days. I’d say, go for it! And good luck 
I switched to Linux when they released Debian 6, a long time ago. One blue screen too much.
I recommend Linux Mint for beginners. I think it is one of the cleanest distributions, among the easy ones.
The thing I like the most is that when everything is open source, there is no bullshit that you can’t easily remove. No adware, no government spyware, no Windows Update, no mandatory telemetry, no EULAs that are longer than the bible where you don’t even understand what you agree to. Why do they even load their products with this garbage? Why shove this down people’s throats?
These closed source products could theoretically be good, but as soon as they are closed source, there is always some pointy haired asshole who will sit around and decide that users “need” forced updates and to be spied on, regardless what they think about it.
Sure, Linux is basically made by kids in a basement and it occasionally breaks in unprofessional ways, but as long as you stick to what they call “stable” you will usually be fine.
Linux UI is just so sluggish. No matter how many times I tried or had to use it, Windows feels nicer. The only good thing about Linux is the terminal. The terminal is godlike, the only reason to use Linux at all.
I was going to write “as you slide deeper and deeper into Linux, you will eventually become a typical grumpy Linux user who goes around saying ‘I just want a terminal’,” but I deleted it. 
You can use Linux without a terminal!? 
I think I might have simply bought a low-spec laptop. It runs very slowly no matter what browser I use. It can barely play a youtube video or twitch stream, and it takes an age to even load a simple webpage like my OGS profile.
I was in a hurry to just grab one on Amazon and I’d assumed that anything going for £200 was basically competent, but I guess I was wrong.
I have an antivirus, but the computer was slow from the start.
I was going to check whether there was a warranty, but Amazon have decided to claim that I’ve never ordered anything from them, ever. Kicked in the balls again…
My laptop turns way too slow when it wants the Windows Update and I neglect it.
Also, I’d check deep for preinstalled trash.
Also GBP is enviable, here anything below 500 Euros isn’t worth the power to turn it on.
You can usually uninstall a dozen or so bundled bloatware programs that the vendor loaded the computer with. Also disable as much telemetry as possible. Another interesting thing I have noticed is that a Windows 10 computer will do fewer funny things behind your back if you go into your network settings and set your network as a metered connection.
You can make a clean install, but if a computer is a slow computer, we’re fighting an uphill battle.
I second that.
Dual boot is a good idea in the beginning (you got nothing to lose!), and there are some pretty good tutorials around, I guess.
Which was not really the case back when I switched to Linux, but I was lucky to have a friend who helped me. Also something I can recommend 
but not necessary.
Yes! Easy to use for beginners, looks quite Windows-like, and afaik it’s also rather lightweight.
I also have thought to try to get into Linux at some point, but I need to look into what hassle it’ll be
The same as installing a fresh copy of Windows, i.e. approx 30 mins
I mean that also sounds like a hassle to me 
Maybe it will actually become faster if you install Linux on it? Xfce is a lightweight, easy desktop environment. LXDE is another one. GNOME and KDE are quite bloated.
The KGS client is no problem, it will run fine. You just need to install Java which is available for the Raspberry with Linux.
I don’t know about IGS. I use the GoPanda2 client which seems to be compiled (so will only run on AMD64-compatible CPUs) but there are other clients.
People who say they can’t leave Windows cite a few programs which do not have full equivalents on Linux: Photoshop, and some games, seem to be the main ones. Photoshop has some features which aren’t in Gimp, the Free Software counterpart. There are also some hardware devices that don’t have Linux drivers - Linux users have to do a little more research before buying that hot new printer or whatever.
Vivaldi can do this and much more. Best browser, strong recommendation 
And I use Proxomitron as a web-filter/pop-up blocker.
To save CPU I recommend also to disable file indexing and all autostarted services that you don’t need (check autoruns from sysinternals package). Speaking of go clients, WBaduk has more lightweight client compared to OGS.
