I don’t know why but Linux users just can’t fathom that at some point, a person’s time is more valuable than some “efficient” functionality.

Its much much much easier to disable telemetry and ads on windows than to switch to Linux. Infact there are simple one time scripts or even Rufus can create an installation drive without the stuff that Linux users try to dunk on windows with.

I agree with you that Linux is not a drop-in replacement for Windows, unless literally all you do is browse the Internet. However, I kinda disagree with a lot of your reasons.

Yes windows blows ass, but everything still works on a functional level.

The reason I finally switched my gaming PC fully to Linux (PopOS specifically) was because my GPU drivers consistently crashed in Windows. They don’t crash in PopOS. Plenty of stuff doesn’t work or is hard to get working in Windows, but is plug-and-play in a lot of Linux distros.

You want to move over to Linux? Better backup ALL of your info onto a USB that supports Linux and Windows hd formats

Sure, but you’d want to back up all your important files even if you were upgrading Windows versions though. I remember when Windows 11 first released, tons of people ended up losing data or soft-bricking their machines in the upgrade process. OS swaps/upgrades are huge changes, and making a backup is the first step in any good OS installation guide.

you can’t use a built in troubleshooter

When’s the last time the Windows built in troubleshooter has fixed anything beyond the most trivial issues? Lol in my experience it was always next to useless.

Do I even need to get into gaming on non SteamOS distro’s?

Again, I game on PopOS, which is Ubuntu-based, and it’s been solid as a rock for over a year. I initially had some audio issues, but I was able to fix them with the UI, I never had to touch the terminal. Performance is the same if not better than on Windows, and for almost every single game I play, it’s as simple as clicking the play button in Steam. For the games where it’s not that simple, it’s usually either trying different versions of Proton, or checking protondb for command line arguments I need to configure in Steam. Both of these things just require drilling into Steam’s UI though, nothing on the terminal.

I definitely get where you’re coming from about the learning curve involved with the terminal. For the times you do need it, it’s daunting for an average user. Even if there’s tons of great documentation out there, it’s still overwhelming if you’re not experienced. But more and more is becoming possible with UIs - it’s getting more user friendly, and it’s not quite where it needs to be yet, but it’s come a long long way in the last couple decades.

As far as looking for replacements for Windows-only software, I feel that pain too. Just the other day on my Linux work laptop, I wanted to make a quick diagram in Paint, but I didn’t have anything preinstalled that I could use, and there were several graphics program choices in the software store, and I didn’t know which one to choose. I think this is ultimately both a good and a bad thing - more choices is almost always a positive, but again, it can get overwhelming, especially if you just want something now that “just works”.