I agreed with this for a long time, but in the past 4ish years I no longer agree. On Windows I regularly run into frustrating issues with audio, drivers, printers, random odd errors.

On linux (currently PoP OS, first on a System76, now a Dell) I have not been running into issues. The biggest issue I ran into was strange Wifi connection issues, which System76 had me submit logs for and identified it as a failed Wifi card. But my audio, drivers, printer, scanner and day to day tasks just work.

Yes there are features that are missing on one platform or another. But day to day is now much more pleasant for me on desktop linux as I run into far less frustrating issues.

I'll reinforce what the parent is saying: for most users, Windows just works. Although I don't like Macs too much, they also just work.

I'm a Linux fan, but I can get myself productive in a new Windows install with no grief. For Linux, I always need to go online to remember "that config change" I had to make to get things working for me - and even then, from time to time I still have to tweak and work around a problem or two as I add more stuff to my computer. What you just wrote as your biggest issue is actually a fairly common Linux experience - submit or search logs from some piece of hardware to diagnose some little glitch.

I'm willing to put on the time, but my nobody else in my family is.

Windows is not fault-free. But for most people (>95%) it works without issues.

Reliability is not that high. But Geek Squad can help when it doesn't work.

I'm not sure I agree that "most people don't care about the stuff you (as a Linux user) would care about". Some people put up with Windows problems because they don't know it could be different, to them that's just how computers work. Take automatic updates for example. More than once have I heard from a friend how they lost unsaved work or an overnight render because their PC rebooted for updates. While on Linux months long uptimes are the norm, and you can trust it won't reboot on you out of blue. Same with ads and other Windows annoyances.

Other people are bound to Windows by their software needs. You're right that many important programs are just not available on Linux (to your Office example I'd also add the Adobe suite). But the end user experience of Windows itself has been downright abysmal for a long time now, and for casual users who don't need much besides Chrome and a couple other Electron apps, modern Linux desktop might genuinely be the better choice.

I'd say the windows experience is maybe more familiar, but not better. As another commenter said, people are just used to computers being crappy the windows way. And even that familiarity may not be all that great with all the things moving around in windows 11.

As another commenter has said, window management is a shitshow, and I don't even mean "missing X feature I love from this other WM". Virtual desktops are broken. You have UAC windows sometimes going to the front, sometimes staying in the back. Sometimes they're at the front covering your old window but they don't have focus, even though the caret is blinking. You get windows maximizing behind the taskbar (Teams). Window management is handed-off to applications, so a broken application will poison the rest of the window management.

> Windows is the only OS that can handle different fractional scaling factors properly for multiple displays

I don't know what you mean by "properly", likely not the same thing as I do.

That it kinda sorta works as in "can turn it on"? But even basic OS things are borked. Have you tried opening the start menu after switching scaling factors?

My use case: I have a laptop running at 100%, and an external monitor running at 150%. If I boot it up this way, the start menu looks fine. If I plug or unplug the external screen while running, the start menu breaks. But here's the kicker, which shows the quality engineering: pressing the start button shows an OK menu. Start typing looking for something, and it becomes blurry! This is under windows 11 with all the latest updates.

Also, Wayland on Linux supports this, too. I don't use Wayland, but I understand that whatever problems there are, as in "not all apps are compatible" is the same problem with windows: the app has to cooperate. Try opening some configuration panels in Windows on a 200% screen, and you better have some good glasses on hand.

> The end user experience is way better on Windows than Linux.

Window management in Windows 10 is so terrible that it makes TWM look modern.

Cluterred title bars so you need to aim for some free space to be able to move the window on other monitor, 1px window borders - good luck resizing windows on HD and UHD monitors. Gray on gray. Terrible scrollbars.

And the best one: Programs keeping files open after you close them.