In my experience, if someone's use cases would be well-suited by Chromebooks or ChromeOS, then desktop Linux will work just as well, if not better, for them.
Reliability-wise, desktop Linux is boringly stable these days as long as you don't insist on the bleeding edge by using Arch or Debian unstable.
The MS Office situation has gotten much better with the rise of online office suite web apps, including Office 365, as well as professional desktop software like SoftMaker's closed-sourced and misnomered FreeOffice[1] that has great compatibility with files written in MS Office's formats.
Lack of Photoshop is a problem, but if you're doing animation, special effects or video editing work, Linux has you covered because companies release Linux versions of their workstation software like DaVinci Resolve, Houdini, Autodesk Flame, Blender, Lightworks etc.
Reliability-wise, desktop Linux is boringly stable these days as long as you don't insist on the bleeding edge by using Arch or Debian unstable.
The MS Office situation has gotten much better with the rise of online office suite web apps, including Office 365, as well as professional desktop software like SoftMaker's closed-sourced and misnomered FreeOffice[1] that has great compatibility with files written in MS Office's formats.
Lack of Photoshop is a problem, but if you're doing animation, special effects or video editing work, Linux has you covered because companies release Linux versions of their workstation software like DaVinci Resolve, Houdini, Autodesk Flame, Blender, Lightworks etc.
[1] https://www.freeoffice.com/en/