There are about 100 various distros available, each with it's own
nuances and features. Some are more oriented for business environments while others are geared toward the novice.
Linux does use a different notation to identify drives in your system drive0, drive1 instead of C: or D:, etc. and might take a bit of getting used to.
You can get a program to show how long your linux box has been running without a reboot and in some cases the results were amazing.
Open Source is a great concept and it does work. There are tons of great programs, games, utilities, etc. that can do practically everything that the Windows OS can do.
Linux appears to be very stable and automatically detects added hardware, network adapters, etc., without much intervention from the user.
Personally, I'd install Linux on a second hard drive as it can often be rather difficult to remove if you should decide that it's not for you.
Good luck with your attempts!