I think this depends. People who need basic computer functions can get on very well with linux.

My classmate in highschool had ubuntu on his home pc as long as I remember, because someone preconfigured it for them and it was mainly a browser - schoolwork machine. He gamed on XBox. There was no hassle, it was fine.

My mom on her run down laptop has mint now, because I configured it for her. I haven’t heard any complaints.

E: Also many hospital here run Linux and it is just fine, and trust me, many of the medical staff are barely tech literate enough to register for email themselves.

Linux is a problem for people who come from windows and need more than basics but are not tech savvy enough to get their hands dirty. Then once your comfort level with tinkering goes up again, Linux is once again not a bad recommendation. It really kind of is the bell curve meme.

I don't either (despite the fact that I use Arch BTW). The average adult in my country is barely able to use their computer for basic tasks (think Word/Excel, basic internet usage). Having all these people on Linux is a nightmare scenario I don't want to imagine. I would love nothing more than Linux becoming the norm in the not-so-distant future, but the computer literacy in the general population is just too low right now.

It doesn't seem to be the case with distros like Mint. I even know folks who have Mint but they have no clue about tech or computers at all. As users they can hardly tell difference. And It's actually easier on them because it doesn't get all messy as Windows does for non tech folks, so there is almost no maintenance needed. I very much recommended it for granparents and such, so you don't have to go fixing their Windows PC each visit because they downloaded tons of random danger ware by not understanding what they do.

My friend told me "it's time to go back to Windows" just because a VST I was using was crashing.

That's literally insane.

Or get Proton and Let Valve do the rest.

Tech support has been my status since I was 12. Honestly, I enjoy being able to explain stuff like this.

Me being tech support is WHY i said that. I told my family either use Linux or leave me alone. Half of them let me install Linux and I've not needed to do anything in years. They are basic users aka open chrome and nothing else and unlike windows Linux doesn't constantly kill itself over time.

I occasionally ssh in to make sure updates are still working and once to setup a new printer remotely but that's it

Does the physical port actually have that capability? My motherboard has a lot of audio ports but inputs cannot be outputs and vice versa

If you're using pipewire, try XDAJackRetask, I use it for that purpose.

Gaming? Use Windows (and yes, although I’m a proud Proton user, some games just won’t work, like Valorant and PUBG).

I love proton on my steamdeck, and I'd like to try to go linux vs having to stay on win10 with no updates on my gaming computer. But outside of some games not working, a lot of hardware/accessories don't have official support either. As far as I can tell, goxlr, streamdeck, and other hardware/software I use daily, have no official support, which for items I use that often makes it pretty much a non-starter on migrating.

sudo apt-get install --reinstall psu

In an effort to relieve her PC of constantly deluge of virus and malware, I switched my Mom over to Ubuntu in the 2000’s. She lasted a month.

The experiment ended when she called me in tears because of her silent 4 week struggle with the OS.

She couldn’t get her scanner to work reliably, and none of her “print shop” software was compatible.

I know more now than I did then, and the distros have come a long way since, but I don’t have the time to retrain her and at 70 years old, I just want her to use what she’s comfortable with, even if that means I have to occasionally scrub her PC.

The difference is that with Linux, it's possible to become smart enough to fix all the issues. Windows is designed in such a way that there usually isn't a way to fix its problems to avoid format and reinstalls no matter how much you know.

Windows is only $price if your data and privacy are worth nothing.

He might just need to print something.

Its funny because a lot of people do this even though its completely unhelpful in solving their problem.

Tell me you haven't tried to use Linux in a decade without telling me you haven't tried to use Linux in a decade.

Yeah but that's 19 years ago