I started to replace Windows with Linux full time, a few years ago.

I personally still think Kubuntu or Xubuntu is the way to go, granted it is a bit of an 'easy' answer. Here are some of my reasons.

1. Manjaro is decent but every arch distro being a more rolling release, tends to encourage keeping it up to date all the time. Debian based distros are still periodic releases. I could go into detail why I believe this is ultimately easier to deal with, some other time.

2. Debian is great and has a ton of good reasons to use/support it. That said the package system seems a bit cluttered in a way. I always found it easier to deal with installing packages on Ubuntu based distros. They both ultimately use the same deb/apt based system but Ubuntu seems to implement it in a way that is cleaner.

3. Sort of related to the last point. Deb files just seem like the easiest package system to deal with, in Linux land. RPM being a close second. App images even more so but those are not as wide-spread.

4. Debian based distros are also the easiest to modify the ISOs/installers of. Using a tool like Cubic, for example. One could create a modified version to be installed without much trouble.

I usually spin up a modified Kubuntu with Wine, Kolourpaint and other Windowsy stuff, as well as remove a bunch of stuff I have no need for.

In terms of the apps you listed, a quick and dirty list of equivalents:

MS Paint - Kolourpaint (This one is VERY similar.)

MS Notepad - Mousepad (Pretty basic text editor a la Notepad.)

or Kwrite (Stylistically fits in with KDE better and has some very nice features I miss with other programs.)

Google Sheets - Probably continue using Sheets. Otherwise, Only Office or Libre Office.

Edge/Chrome - Could continue using these just fine. Though I would like to suggest Librewolf or Vivaldi as alternatives with much less BS.

Backup stuff - I use Timeshift to back up my install. You could use this for other stuff too but there are probably better drive sync options. The name of some escapes me at the moment but I could look into it.

I would be happy to go into things in more detail, or even help directly over some form of messaging, but I don't have much time today. If you might be interested, just reply here or not, I guess. I could help more next week.

PS, as others have said, Linux Mint is great too. It's based on Ubuntu, so pretty much everything about Ubuntu applies.

(Edited for formatting.)