I started my GIS journey using PC ARC/info software ESRI. ESRI was a historic mainframe Unix based GIS software programed in Fortran that took up large rooms and whole buildings to run. A programmer thinking outside the box made a PC version and ESRI went kicking and scream into the age of the small personal computer. I continued to use the ESRI product for work but found it became less friendly as they developed and expanded into federal and state marketing. In retirement it became too expensive to used for me since it was out of reach for most private non-government end users. I made the switch to QGIS because it is open source and compatible with my needs. Best of all was the price.
QGIS or Quantum GIS is a geographic information system (GIS) software runs in Windows, macOS, and Linux. The software allows viewing, editing, printing, and analysis of geospatial data in a range of data formats. It will handle both raster and vector data and big data sets. I like it enough to continue to support the organization for the past 20 years with an annual donation. See https://qgis.org/ for more information and download.
After downloading and installing use the tutorials to learn how to use. The Training or Tutorial Manual is located in the Help Contents documents in the upper menu. QGIS is not as dummy proof as ESRI products but still usable with practice. Save prior renderings of map layers you may need to take a step back to use that data again. Qgis has steep a learning curve but the tutorials with practice data sets and Youtube videos will help speed the learning process. You will need to take a gamer's attitude and figure out how to "score points" and move to the next level or map rendering.