I AM a programmer (Controls Engineer, actually), and work on many, many different operating systems for a living - Hondas help me restore my sanity when it gets to me...the ones that "get to me" are always Windows-based POSes. Everything else works excellently, except Windows.
So...if you only use a computer for stuff like e-mail, the occasional document (or writing a book?
), I can't too strongly suggest, "Use something else", like an Apple computer or even Linux (Ubuntu works well) OS on your present one. You won't be sorry, and your life will be much less irritated by things with keyboards, mice, and screens.
Just my 2 cents...