I’ve been exclusively Linux for years, and all the crap now going on with AI and ads being shoved into literally everything makes me happier than ever with that decision.

But you’re absolutely right. Linux is “it just works” in a relatively narrow use-case.

Just going on the internet to browse and play some Facebook games (my parents). It’ll absolutely work out of the box.

Doing some light creative work (design, writing, etc…) No tinkering needed.

But from there it becomes a scale from “probably work fine” to “hours of work and extra repositories needed”.

Video editing or 3D modelling with an NVIDIA card because CUDA, it SHOULD be easy to install, but there’s a chance it won’t be. You take your chances.

Gaming through proton? Single player games, yeah. I’ve literally had 95% work out of the box because Valve is awesome. But I don’t play online multiplayer. If you need to play nice with anticheat software, good luck.

I too get frustrated with the fundamentalist Linux base who think its the right fit for everyone. Because it absolutely is not, and its okay to admit that because admitting that drives the motivation to improve it.