I often see people saying Linux is difficult to install and use, and when people ask for more details it turns out they’re describing an experience from 15-20 years ago, and they haven’t tried using it since. There are several very easy distros around now.

I think people that talk like this overstate the difficulty of Linux. There are easy distros that won’t trouble the average user.

And Linux isn’t minimal effort. It’s an operating system that demands more of you than does the commercial offerings from Microsoft and Apple. Thus, it serves as a dojo for understanding computers better. With a sensei who keeps demanding you figure problems out on your own in order to learn and level up.

I don’t think this is true unless you’re digging in. For the average person doing everyday things, using a Linux Mint installation isn’t going to be any more complicated than using Windows. Just different, with some new patterns to learn. I don’t know about MacOS since I’ve never felt moved to pay the entry fee to use it.

I’m sure it could, but no one thinks it’s worth their time when Git is right there and does the same job.

Being shouted at in a mailing-list for fixing a bug doesn’t sound like fun.

What’s that a reference to?