I've had pretty much the same experience you have - until quite recently, the machine under the desk at home was a collection of pieces of other computers, stitched together. We called it "Trigger's Broom" after a BBC comedy series scene. It ran all sorts of flavours of Linux during it's life. My eldest daughter won't even entertain Windows on her computer any more - she got used to the speed and simplicity of Elementary OS some time ago. My other half works in education - she got a Chromebook, and never looked back...