Ouch. I actually use my PC every day. :)
Ubuntu is the most common desktop linux distro and has been for a while now. Like you, I tried linux several times over MANY years..... going way back to when you compiled the entire OS (on a 386-66.... start at lunchtime and hope it completes by dinnertime with no errors..... yikes).

You can see if Ubuntu will work for you by creating a "Live CD". I believe it's official name is a Desktop CD. It's a bootable CD that gives you the option to "Try Ubuntu" and also to "Install Ubuntu". When you choose to try it, it runs entirely off the CD with no changes to your machine, but it allows you to see if all of your hardware is recognized out of the box and things work. Runs a little slower that way, but at least you get to see if things work. I have that Live CD on a flash drive now which is a little faster and I can test machine compatibility before installing. So far I've installed it on about 30 very different machines and not had issues with the latest version. It's much better about supporting hardware now than it was 8 or 9 years ago.... or even 4 years ago.

For office type applications there's Open Office which can be set to save by default to Microsoft formats. I have my son's laptop set up that way for college and no issues with papers not being readable by instructors using MS Office on Windows. I don't believe there is a Visio-like app and not sure if there's a DreamWeaver substitute, so until you find out whether there is a linux native app that will do the job, you'd still need windows. I have applications for reading info from my medical equipment that are windows-only. Virtualbox. Start windows in a VM, plug in equipment via USB. Linux doesn't really know what to do with these specialized USB devices so I created a filter in the VM that basically tells the host machine (linux) "any time you see this piece of hardware, give it to the virtual machine". Done deal.

Know that if you are going to explore virtual machines, you may need more memory as you're running more than one operating system at a time. 4GB is usually sufficient to run the host OS and one virtual. I have 8GB because I often have multiple VMs running at the same time. When I am working from home I have a Windows 7 Enterprise VM running IE, Firefox, Outlook (to connect to the Exchange server at work), Word, Excel all at the same time. Might be more apps occasionally but that list is about standard. Meanwhile my host machine is surfing, doing personal email, taking converted VHS tapes and making them into DVDs with menues, etc.

Back on topic.... I use ClamAV in linux to scan windows file systems. I get Symantec Endpoint Protection free so I install that on a windows machine if needed.

It's all about options and using whatever works for you. :)