You can definitely do that if you are not explicitly required to use MS office. I had the problem some years ago… Used a vim with win 7 until it broke, then i forced them to lift the rule by GDPR

Mint cinnamon (newest version)

Very beginner friendly and has a big community, most stuff works out of the box, steam is recommended heavily as it has a build in compatibility layer (Proton) if you want to check your favorite games check out at protondb.com/

Only notable thing is that MS office isn’t working on Linux unless the web app is used (wich isn’t a problem unless you are required by work/school to use it)