FOSS developers don’t develop distros. Distro maintainers package that software into distros. Linux, KDE, GNOME, systemd, GNU software etc are just single pieces of the puzzle developed individually.

The distro is closer to the old proprietary OS. So the enduser just has to learn other “new” software, the OS doesnt demand a learning curve but just replicates the Win/Mac experience.

There’s always a learning curve with new things (software or otherwise). In case of Win why would we want to go back in time in usability? E.g. Cinnamon and KDE are far superior in UX compared to Windows. Also in Linux distros you can actually fix problems unlike in windows.

I’ve been using Linux as a daily driver since 2018 (thanks Valve and Proton) and in my experience things just work (if they are supported) and thing like headset don’t just randomly stop working because reasons unlike in windows. In windows you then run some troubleshooter that can’t fix it, reboot several times while praying to whatever gods you like and hope for the best. If that doesn’t help you start searching online and only find vague instructions that might help but no solutions.

Missing software compatibility

What compatibility? If user insists on running some windows only software it’s expected to run into problems.

the need to fall back on the commandline are just some of the problems.

So? Even windows and macOS has a command line. It’s easier to help with problems if you instruct them to run some command (though running random commands of the web is not really a good idea security wise) then trying to navigate them to some gui which might not exist in their distro. Even in windows users are told to run commands in the command line to try and fix problems e.g. sfc /scannow and dism <whatever>.

Now you are thinking: But just install Linux Mint and they probably do most of the things in their Browser anyways.

In AD 2025 this is true in most cases. People just use social media, some webmail, youtube, read news etc. The OS is just there to start the web browser.

neither ctrl+z nor ctrl+q work

Ctrl + z will send the task to the background. You can use jobs to see all active background work. Fg will bring background work to the foreground. Ctrl + q is not a valid shortcut as far as I know. Looks a bit like a mac thing (command + q).

Couldn’t be happier with them. They just work and announce ahead of time about any maintenance. Have a storage box from them for backups and a vps for other uses. I do my backups with pika-backup (a borg frontend).