I'm back! One thing I didn't expect was that fixing both Latitudes this way would eliminate all those unforgettable old names, for the distros that had been installed on partitions and later removed. It cleaned up everything.
I decided to give one of my laptops to my wife to replace hers, still a Latitude but a lesses model. We'll recycle her old one, which has become a little worse for wear. If I ever decide that I really do need a second laptop, I'll buy one, but at this time I'm thinking it would only be another machine to maintain, and I don't really need it.
So I set up the first laptop with a user for me, because I maintain and update it. But also a user for my wife, who will be using it nearly all the time. I set up her three favorite games in three workspaces, and configured the settings so that she can't get into any trouble with the menu and such. In place of the menu, there are icons for those games on the desktop. And the window decorations for the games include only an X button to close them. They're always maximized, and that can't be changed.
The second laptop I set up for myself, just as it's always been setup. I sync'd Vivaldi and created all the tab stacks I've used for a long time. I also set up Thunderbird, and configured three email accounts, imported two address books, linked with two Google calendars, and set up my games. Finally, I installed VirtualBox.
This all took a whole afternoon, but the result is wonderful. There's no need for me to replace any laptops. Their UEFI settings are pristine, and each has some spare unallocated storage for possible future use. I'm a very happy camper, and glad to be here again. And I want to thank, one more time, everyone who helped me solve this.
