Automated Windows 10 updates deleted all my documents and files

I'm not YET a Linux user--getting closer and closer with every update, and I think it's going to be on my next computer no matter what--so I hope that Linux users will correct me if I get anything wrong, but my understanding is that there are a few versions.  Some of them require you to be a power user who knows a lot of programming; others are designed to be more user-friendly.  There are versions of it you do pay money for, but I think most are free.   

If you ask Google about the best type of Linux to install, though, it will show you a bunch of articles reviewing and ranking the different versions, and ease of use is one of the thing they talk about.  (Generally it looks like the more user-friendly something is the less customizable it is, but there are still a lot of choices.)  One version that people kept mentioning was Mint, but the last time I looked it up was a few months ago, so your own research might turn up something even better or more suitable for your needs.

Is Linux a free program that you can install? I know of it but have never used it. Is it user friendly or does it look like the old dos programming from the 80's? I know my way around the user friendly kind of software but I'm no expert in how it works. Thanks for your knowledge. :) I don't like knowing that a company as big and bullish as Microsoft can just swoop in and wipe out anything on my computer and have no repercussions at all for it. That just isn't right and doesn't sit well with me.

I think I am one of who knows how many others who lost all of my downloads, documents, pictures and videos to this awful Windows 10 update. I went to turn on my laptop one morning about 3 months ago and was looking for a particular document and noticed that EVERYTHING I had stored on my hard drive was GONE. I was in awe and beyond upset. I had so many documents that were important and every one of them were erased. I had no idea what had happened at that point. A computer tech friend of mine said that when my computer went to sleep ( I just closed it and didn't actually shut it down) that this was what caused it to do the unwanted, unauthorized upgrade as soon as I woke it back up. Once that happened my laptop was doomed and all files wiped away. How can Microsoft get away with this?! Is it even legal to do this to a persons computer?? Is this monopolizing company going to be made to pay restitution to the millions of people who are forced to buy their product every year now(if they want to have a usable/fully workable Microsoft Works program) instead of it being free and simply pre-loaded into the operating system like it used to be? Since when was it ok to get away with doing something like this? Has anything come about with this major issue at all? I am so upset with this whole scenario. I just want all of my stored information back and my laptop the way it was before the upgrade. I have tried everything I have found to recover my files but I don't think I will ever be able to recover what was lost. >:(

Gicoms, dont wait for a Microsoft statement - it wont ever happen.

In their world;

        admission of fault = liability.

This shows how big the issue is, and the continued stunning silence from Microsoft.

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3293440/microsoft-windows/an-open-letter-to-microsoft-management-re-windows-updating.html

actually, Microsoft is aware and already stopped the distribution of the fall update.

Gicoms, dont wait for a Microsoft statement - it wont ever happen.

In their world;

        admission of fault = liability.

This shows how big the issue is, and the continued stunning silence from Microsoft.

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3293440/microsoft-windows/an-open-letter-to-microsoft-management-re-windows-updating.html