In all seriousness though it'd be really nice if people stopped sharing memes making Linux look hard. Its literally the only readily available easy to use option that doesn't spy on you, the people need to not be scared of it.
This is very true. There are even options where you don’t have to touch the command line, and just work no problem.
That said, I love tinkering on my Linux machine. It elevates it from a tool to a hobby for me, which I love. It adds a spark to my life! But hey, not everyone is like me, and that’s just fine (may be for the best!).
As a 20 year user I can't imagine using something else as easily. My partner, who's been using it for less than a month, also has a great time with it.
Back when I was still learning though I broke it quite a few times mucking about where I didn't belong and copy-pasting commands I didn't understand into the terminal.
Remember kids, if you don't understand what you're reading, you can break things by following instructions.
If that's any consolation, if it tried to spy it would probably fail.
Not sarcasm
Using Linux since 1999, and add my primary personal and work computer for 6 years non stop. Maybe things are awesome but we know new stuff will take half a decade to get it right lol
Use flatpak for anything newer. Most things are already available as flatpak, only things I haven't seen available are terminal based applications as Flatpak.
Though maybe in a future version we might get that capability. I've always been told you can't install terminal based applications like neofetch or bpyTOP as flatpak. Which is kind of a bummer but not that big of a deal.
Keep your files in "My Documents" (and any other default media folders like movies and pictures; or on a separate drive) and you won't lose shit other than installed programs when you re-install Windows.
I've learned through years it's best to just wipe entire OS partition (it's smart to have a dedicated one with user files on separate one, you can even quickly relocate Documents folders) and just reinstall clean. It's usually faster and more reliable than troubleshooting for hours with no guaranteed fix.