Go Slackware, that was my first cherry pop and I'm still using it today.
Thier are a good wiki out there to guild along after install - it too has a good UIFE or is it UEFI install - (my BIOS does not support UEFI fully) I had/have no experience whatsoever with UEFI and I installed it on someone else laptop without a hitch.
Slackware is not that intimidating. It is like no other and it is like all the others in everything that one has never had any experience in. Just like people that never used Windows, they had to get use to it by using it. same as driving a car or anything someone has never done before.
Just read up on it like any DISTRO especially if installing UEFI because their are a few little quirks that need to be dealt with before installing it, like one said. fast boot, and secure boot have to be turned off in BIOS. and that uefi partition thingy and whatnots.
Alien BoB even took time out of his watching TV and created a live boot install of Slack as well.
me, not you, but me, if I got no means of activating an install of windows (which would not happen) I'd just dive in and wipe it then install Linux on it(any linux would do to get it up and running, then I'd just start distro hopping as I have been there done that.). As long as I had another means of communication with the internet for help in case I needed it. ie cell phone with a web browser and wifi connection. Been there done that too.
if you do not have to really rely on that windows install to get more important things done with it. like pay bills or whatever with it, then .... its really all up to you in what you do with your life.
