I’m sure no one in this community needs to be convinced to try Linux. But I love it every time I see a non-Linux person trying Linux and showing other people that it works. (Also nice to see that Jeff Gerstmann is still around and doing alright after getting screwed over by Gamespot for like 15 years.)
I’ll add my own anecdote since I installed CachyOS a few weeks ago and have used it daily since. Have some experience with Linux Mint from before, but in the past few years I’ve almost exclusively used Windows.
For me, everything worked with default settings out the box, but I did see the wiki specifically mention “use btrfs if it works, if not, use…”. I even got my *arr stack and Jellyfin up and running relatively painlessly. And some games and programs not made for Arch/Linux.
The thing is I say relatively painlessly, but some of them involved a day of tinkering, diving into the Cachy and Arch wiki pages, etc. I’m fine with that, I find it fun. It’s the price you pay for wanting the benefits of the distro (performance, customisability, etc). And I was very clearly warned going into it, which TBF almost made me not go with an Arch-based distro.
So yeah, they are made a bit painful to use on purpose. Or rather, it’s a side effect of the core philosophies. It’s not for everyone, but it does cater to specific groups, and I think that is good. Kinda like how not every fediverse instance is for everyone (see also: Mastodon vs Lemmy vs Piefed)
I would still without a doubt recommend Linux Mint if someone wants an easy and painless experience after Windows. Heck, because of apt it’s even easier than Windows a lot of the time. And for the stuff that doesn’t work, it’ll happen if Linux gets more traction. Sadly we’re just not there yet.
(Though apparently the main thing out of everything I use in work and outside of it, it’s damned Xbox controllers that I have yet to get around to making function)
Every time I see people complain about the complexity of Linux, I just want to remind them that the alternative is Windows and, while it can require less work as long as what you want to do is supported… if you want to do other things like:
etcetc, you still need to jump through tedious hoops involving using the terminal, editing system files and running random scripts from strangers on the Internet.
Sure, if you’re using Windows you can play games without having to check a box in Steam but there are other tradeoffs that you simply don’t have to make if you’re using Linux. For example, I control my own disk encryption keys, my ‘cloud’ is in a locked, encrypted and tamper-resistant fireproof server box inside my house, all of my accounts are local, search is a local command without any means of accessing the Internet and my text editor doesn’t even understand that communication with the outside world is even a thing (why would it need this?).