Long post and well worth the read, but the interesting part to me is this:
Windows operating system and apps
Customers using Windows have always used a combination of operating system functionality as well as apps, but now Windows will clearly identify operating system functionality in places like Settings, Start, and Search:
- Settings > System > System Components will show notable operating system components.
- Start menu’s All Apps list has been renamed to All and operating system components are labeled with “system”.
- Under Search, search results will show operating system components labeled with “system”.
All apps in Windows can be uninstalled. Of course, apps can always be installed again from the Microsoft Store and internet. Settings > Apps > Installed apps continue to show all the apps installed on the PC and we’ve added the ability to uninstall:
- Camera
- Cortana
- Web Search from Microsoft Bing, in the EEA
- Microsoft Edge, in the EEA
- Photos
I love Linux, but I'll admit what you say has some credence.
Linux has a lot of polish now. Most big distros are going to have an easy to use GUI installer, and there are several mature very usable desktop environments.
But, for example, if a new user has an nvidia card it's probably going to be a poor experience for them and they won't understand why or how to fix it. So there's shortcomings there. I blame nvidia for this specific issue, but your average user probably doesn't care about that. They just want their video card to work well.
It is definitely getting better. I've been running the same Arch installation with KDE for the last 5 years at work. Surprisingly stable and had little to no issues.
Still, the issues I did have required a basic understanding of what a package manager is, what does sudo do, and other general linux knowledge.
The results difference between a newbie googling "wifi doesnt work" and an experienced user googling "networkmanager service logs showing error XY" is just too great.