I want to change my operating system from Windows 7 to Ubuntu. I have used MS Office for years and currently have Office 2010. Moving to a different word processor, spreadsheet application, and database is somewhat daunting. Are these Libre applications comparable to the ones on Office 2010? How much trouble would I have moving a large amount of financial data from the Access database to a Libre database? My rough plan is to purchase a new computer with a Windows 10 operating system installed. Currently I have a Lenovo T530 Think Pad with Windows 7 Pro. It’s processor speed is up to 3.30 GHz, Total Memory: 4 GB DDR3 — 1600 MHz (1 DIMM). Hard Drive: 320 GB, 7200 rpm. After purchasing a new computer my plan is to wipe the hard drive on the Lenovo (except for the operating system) then download Ubuntu 18.04/18.10 (64 bit). From there I would download LIbreOffice. Once I understand the new operating system and new applications and move data from the old applications, I will transfer everything to the new computer. Does this sound feasible?
I would start working parallel on MSOffice and LO.
Are these Libre applications comparable to the ones on Office 2010?
You can compare but they are neither identical nor fully compatible.
My experience says: Start on Windows on LO until you will have experienced the differences to MSOffice. Think about a way back if you are not successful. 
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Meanwhile check Ubuntu basic handling on dual boot, extra HDD or additional Computer.
And - for sure - your equipment seems to be okay. Also 5400 rpm would do ;-).
Does this sound feasible?
Yes, it does.
- Your question is far beyond the scope of this site. You should ask further question in relevant forums/mail lists.
- Why buy a new computer with Windows 10 when you want to switch to Ubuntu? It does not sound feasible nor sane to me. May be a problem in your location, but in mine there are options with GNU/Linux (including Ubuntu) or FreeDOS installed.
- Read this (it is for openSUSE but is so general that will apply to Ubuntu): 12. MS Windows Interoperability - Using openSUSE With Windows Network, Documents and Running MS Windows Applications 2. Switching to GNU/Linux - Benefits and Challenges of Migrating to GNU/Linux 6. Apps for Common Tasks - Applications to Perform the Most Common Tasks
- And yes, try the new office suite in the environment that you are familiar with. From your question, I would conclude that the challenging part will be the database.
Excellent question @Les35 and very good advice from @Grantler. My wife and I will face the same problem later this year. I already use LibreOffice, and already have Ubuntu installed on another computer in the house. My wife, however, is not yet familiar with either. In my experience you will have little problem converting unless you use very fancy formatting or many “special” features in MS Office. I have already begun transferring data WordPerfect QuattroPro to LibreOffice by exporting my spreadsheets in csv format and then rebuilding the spreadsheet in LO with reconstructed formulas, new graphs, etc.
A bigger problem, perhaps, will be compatibility with colleagues, friends and relatives. (If they still use Win 7, get them to convert too, rather than “upgrade” to Win 10.)
Just want to add a third way besides building a dual boot system or using an other independent machine as already has been suggested. With Windows 10, if you’d choose to start with a familar environment, you could also use Hyper-V to have a Linux-System as guest. Launchable on your demand. Or more than one Distro if you’d like to check out which is best for you.
The difference is that a dual boot system could cause now and then trouble with the Feature Updates of Win 10 every half year and that you can have both at the same time running on the same system. And of course a separate machine is waste of space as well as a sticking point for use since it is always extra effort to go there and boot it. Anyway you’d have to be somehow strict to your self and use it instead of easing back to the familar way everytime something does not work as expected.
Short answer
First learn to use LibreOffice on Windows. At the same time, setup Linux on a separate PC and learn to use it.
Long answer
It took me 15 years of spare time to transition fully to LibreOffice. 2019 is the year where I managed to master LibreOffice Base. Along the way I used Sun StarOffice, Apache OpenOffice, Novel, NovelOffice and now TDF LibreOffice.
While doing that I switched to Linux in 2007.
For me, office applications are tools that I use to get work done. Transitioning from MS Office to LibreOffice is a huge step. The two can accomplish the same tasks but they solve problems differently.
Things that are different include:
- Macro code LO Basic API is not the same as MS VBA Basic API.
- User interfaces Icons, names and some terminology.
- File formats.
Some of your MS Office documents will simply not display as expected, some formulas might stop working, databases need to be migrated, presentations might need re-editing.
As for trying out Ubuntu. If I were you I would follow the advice given by @Grantler, start using LO on Windows, first! To that I would say, try out Linux on a separate machine, until you get the hang of Linux. If you switch to Linux over night, expect much frustation. It took me 6 months! Make certain you always have your work backed up. Just google “lost my files no backups”, if you need motivation.
Some of this is fairly easy, like importing spread sheets. But learning Linux and moving from Access to Base is much harder.
What I did was to first migrate my data from Access to MySQL. Then I updated my Access to point back to this MySQL. Then with that working, I started the interface from Base to this same MySQL. Note that the type of some of your fields will probably have to be changed. Anyway, that way I could continue to use my old system, and update it as I worked to rebuild my Base interface. Keep in mind that Access is much more capable than Base. So moving to Base is a little like putting on a smaller shoe. Expect to have to dumb down your interface. Yes Base is quite capable, but there are many things that it still can’t easily do, like for example it can’t easily copy blocks of data, e.g. rows 42-47, and only 3 columns to row 65.
Let me give you an analogy: We have transitioned to electric cars, 2 of them now. The best way to do this is to plan to keep your ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) car, and add an electric car. Then as when you get fully comfortable with the electric car you can someday get rid of the ICE car. There is a lot to learn in both Linux and on a Tesla or Leaf. (BTW, a Tesla runs Linux internally).
It took me about a year to get up the first steep hill with Linux, and the first part was very hard. Had to learn lots of bash, the unix file structure, some perl, lots of network stuff, as well as lots of the GNU stuff like AWK, etc. It also took some time to get the printer and scanner sorted out. I had to learn about grub, and kernels, and apt, and synaptic, … … And there were days when I lost everything and had to start all over from scratch, so especially at first, write everything in the installation down as you go. I think your first goal is to be able to backup and restore your system. The Linux documentation is all over, but scattered all over. I ended up writing a bash script to run rsync to be able to fairly quickly backup and restore. Also I recommend considering btrfs for your file system. Then you can use snapper to be able to more easily recover from problems, by rolling back parts of your system to an earlier time. … but this will also take you some time to learn to use well.
That being said, I am SO very happy to be on Linux now! I was getting to simply hate Windows. And I had used MS since ms-dos days.
Now I keep a dual boot system because some of my software like my sweet CAD tools and structural design software simply don’t exist on Linux.
Good luck and have fun. Glad to hear of your endeavors.