That was a decade+ ago, closer to two.

I’ve always had far more driver issues with Windows.
I have a niche laptop that for mic & speakers doesn’t really have drivers for that exact ID and a close (working) match are ancient, so can’t avoid crackling sounds. No issues out of the box with Linux.

on a thread about someone having a weird issue with linux

someone shares related story involving troubleshooting for hours

“You’re really selling me on Linux. Sounds like a nightmare”