Linux distros have come light years since the 90s. I had tons of trouble with hardware compatibility with Redhat back in the day, I've been using Ubuntu exclusively for about five years and two or three machines now, and I've never been happier.

Been using linux since 1996 I think, can't remember when I started but I do remember it took a week to download the first version I used over the internet. Debian dual booted with windows.

One reason to "try" Linux again is that you can install it onto a USB stick and run it from that, without modifying your hard drive. Obviously it'll be slow, unless you have a good speed USB drive and lots of RAM, but, it's a great way to check it out.

The good thing is that hardware support is far better than it was in '94. Also, many distros have live versions, which allow to check it out without installing.

If you have a fairly robust 64-bit system, you can even try out installations inside a VM, like Oracle's VirtualBox. Personally, I dislike systemd, which to me seems like an attempt to obfuscate things in a manner like the Windows registry, which is why I've gone with Devuan.
[distrowatch.org]

Things have progressed significantly since 1994! Modern linux distros are packed with functionality and compatibility. I would recommend to anyone who is "coming back" try a Debian-based distro to see if it plants a bug, such as straight Debian or one of the Ubuntu flavors. They're really pretty stellar. Slackware still has a niche but it's minor.