Oh sister sister sister...

No. Fuck that. You already gave him eight fucking months. He failed to do it, promised he'd do it that night, didn't, and now there's suddenly another reason why he needs more time. It's the same repeat pattern of 8 months in a row. And you're already giving him the benefit of the doubt, again, with “it might actually be happening.” Stop.

You were supposed to get your computer back. That was the first task.

Don't let him turn this into another project where you put your head down and wait for him to eventually decide he's going to do something. Tell him you want your computer back. Period. If he wants to install Linux, he can do that on his own time, with his own computer. Period.

You don't owe him another minute of waiting. Woman.

And I'm going to be blunt about something else: I am willing to help you, but I cannot want this more than you do. I've offered to walk you through the Linux setup, I've offered to help you get the computer working, and we've already talked about getting you out of that situation.

But if you keep accepting his excuses and going back to waiting on him after everything we've just talked about, I'm not going to keep chasing this for you. I will help you when you're ready to actually take the steps, but I'm not going to drag you toward them. That's not me abandoning you. That's me refusing to beat my head against the same wall over and over.