So Mint can perform the same role as a tablet

Yeah, you could argue that Mint allows that laptop to perform the same role as a tablet; it's at most used for simple image edition, web browsing, and listening music through the SMB network (from my computer because hers has practically no storage).

Without a Linux distro the other options would be to "perform" as electronic junk or virus breeding grounds.

I keep seeing these posts and comments, trying to convince people This Is The Year of The Linux Desktop.

Drop off the strawman. That is neither what the author of the article said, nor what I did.

The rest of your comment boils down to you noisily beating that strawman to death, and can be safely disregarded as such.