Thanks kyteflyer. I expanded on your search for Linux audiobook creation. I did not realize there was a specific audiobook format - .m4b - I thought I just had to use a series of .mp3 files. But a single file containing an audiobook is more appealing.
Here are a few more links on creating audiobooks in Linux, for when you get around to moving to this OS yourself. I cannot vouch for any of these links, as I haven't tried them yet. Quickly scanning over them, the process looks simple (if you know Linux!)
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Audiobook
https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1418085
https://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/...Make_M4B_Files
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=218906
As a point of reference for you when you finally get into Linux, most everything from the Wiki for ArchLinux is helpful, even if you are not running the Arch distro. You have to modify a few steps for other distros, mostly related to package management, but people that use Arch seem to be the best at documenting things. If someone tells you how to do something in Arch, Slackware or Debian you can usually trust that they have a good idea of what they are doing. That is not always the case when you read something from Ubuntu. Ubuntu is a fine distro, with lots of support, but that is where most new Linux users tend to end up. And sometimes things get confused because a new user tries to help you, but they really don't know what they're doing in the first place. God bless 'em for trying, but just be aware that you may be lead astray.
As you move to Linux, I would recommend the LinuxMint distro as a good place to start for your desktop system. It is based on Ubuntu, which in turn is based on Debian. You can use all the software designed for Ubuntu on Mint. I would say Mint is what you want if you want to get up and running the fastest. Ubuntu would be my second recommendation for that. Next up would be Debian, but that will take a bit more knowledge/learning on your part. If you want to drive yourself crazy as a newbie, by all means go with Arch or Slackware. Great distros too, but they will not hold you by the hand as you learn. Although Arch documentation is probably the best and most reliable out there. Use the Arch documentation, and learn how to apply it to other Linux distros.
Another thing to watch for - you'll find Google hits for five million ways to do each thing. But many of those hits will be describing some older version of a program (that may not even exist anymore). So you have to learn how to filter things and find the help that works on the software installed on YOUR system, at the CURRENT POINT IN TIME.
Check out
www.linuxquestions.org That's the best place out there to get good answers, but often times you'll see a delay of a day or two before responses start rolling in to your questions.
Thanks for the pointers on this .m4b file format that I was not aware of!