[graemep]

Linux is more of a nuisance to set up, although that can be mitigated by buying hardware with Linux pre-installed. I just did (although I ended up reinstalling because I changed my mind about what distro I wanted).

Once installed it is a lot less troublesome.

I think there are a lot of users like your parents than you think. I think you are right about artists using Photoshop, and gamers wanting the full range of games, but I know Windows small business users who use LibreOffice. A lot of my clients use MS Office, Teams and other MS stuff and I have no problems working with them.

[barrotes]

I think that for the "casual user" distros (like Mint) the set up problem is not an issue if you can choose the PC before. For eventual friends that want Linux I always tell them to find a second-hand T-series ThinkPad. They have a fairly large second-hand market where you can buy one for even 200/300€, they are solid laptops (at least the old generations...), they fully support Linux. Sometimes someone arrives with an old entry level laptop that "doesn't work anymore" (translated: it suffers with Windows) and in those case it might happen that you need to to some tricks to make everything work, but these are usually just post-installation procedures, nothing to worry about after everything is set up.

[Mo3]

I mean... nuisance... maybe 10 years ago or if you try to install Arch from source, but nowadays the big distros all have very nice and beginner friendly installers. Totally on par with Windows, if not even more user friendly because you don't have to deal with forced logins and navigating dark patterns.

[ozzcer]

Yea Linux distros are beating out windows now. I trying popOS at the moment and the install process was a couple of clicks. No assistant screaming up me, no internet connection required. Beautiful.

[seba_dos1]

At first glance "10 years ago" seemed right, but then I did the math and it's more like 20 years ago. 10 years ago there was Steam, Plasma 5, Dell sold Linux laptops and Unity has been the default in Ubuntu for a few years already. Time flies.