>> / cue eric
Well yes, you know my views.
I've long ago passed the point where Windows became more difficult to use than Linux, but it took some time to get there. Lots of people try a Linux distro, discover that it doesn't work like Windows, and give up. That's a shame, because Linux really isn't more difficult, it's just very different. It takes time to learn it. The reward of perseverance is a big one - freedom.
If that sounds rather too philosophical, I can only draw your attention to the numerous postings on all sorts of forums (including this one) complaining about the various ways in which Microsoft takes information from you and makes changes to your system without your knowledge or agreement. That doesn't happen in Linux; your system is yours and yours alone, and only you can make changes to it.
And there's really nothing which Windows can do that Linux can't do as well or better, and it often is better. OK, there's a small list of hardware which hasn't yet got adequate Linux drivers, but it's really a small proportion of the total. But on the other hand, most hardware is automatically configured during installation, and for mainstream hardware it's usually the case that the drivers are already on your system as kernel modules supplied as standard.
You've pushed me into missionary mode
so I'd better leave it there, but if anyone wants to try out Linux there's plenty of community support and I'll be more than pleased to do my bit to help.