Linux users would post their problems on various forums, but very rarely post their success story. Linux desktop is actually pretty good at this point. Just pick a distro and try it yourself.
Not using Windows except for work, I use Linux mostly because of Microsoft’s design decisions. I guess depending on your use case, Windows can be a perfectly fine OS. Personally, I think their behavior is unprofessional (trying to force Microsoft accounts on users, ads in the start menu, integration of AI into the system which means transmitting data to their servers etc) so I’m willing to accept tradeoffs for systems which do not come with these downsides.
Linux Mint (I'd recomment Debian edition, LMDE) is basically what you want to try out. I've set up a PC with it for my stepfather that hasn't used Linux at all and he's happy with it. It's designed to be as newbie-friendly as possible. You won't have more issues with it than you'll already have using Windows.
Then if you feel unsatisfied with anything about it, you can go looking for other linux distributions (distros) because you have a general idea what's happening.
You won't have more issues with it than you'll already have using Windows.
You absolutely will, and the ones you get will be harder to solve. It's far more useable than it used to be, but the overall experience with Windows is still easier.
BUT it probably is quite usable for you overall. Just don't go into it expecting nothing but smooth sailing.
There are a lot of help posts on the MS and other windows forums too. Computers and OSes will always have issues because of complexity and incompatibilities between hardware and software. No matter if you install Windows, Linux, or MacOS. The machines that are least buggy because each manufacturer is doing extensive tests, are the mobile OSes, iOS and (most) Android. It’s not as possible to do the same on a desktop OS. So cut your losses, and install Linux Mint, which is I believe it’s the best for newbies.
From my experience having used Linux for years: Here is the full list of problems I encountered that I’d say are not the result of me tinkering:
Nvidia driver is fucked up
A hard drive also used by Windows won’t mount
The software app can’t update my system
2nd monitor won’t work correctly (pretty much solved nowadays)
Those are fairly common issues afaik, and they are caused by using a slightly more complex setup (dual-booting Windows, extra repos in the package manager) and notoriously troublesome Nvidia hardware. For all but the last there is a one-line command you can run to fix it, and it took maybe 2 min to find it on my phone.
Apart from these issues it’s been rock solid, so I’d say you’re good as long as you avoid those known causes for problems (No Nvidia, no Windows, no extra repos), or you are able to find solutions to the most common problems and run simple commands on the terminal.
Look, programs always have issues, always have bugs. The best model on linux dostro is “rolling release”, which is explicit about constantly fixing the issues.
Depends on what you want to do. For most general uses, Linux is stable af.
Unlike Windows, Linux doesn’t really try to stop you from doing much when it comes to customization, scripting and tinkering, the only limitations are your abilities and how well you can find proper information on the internet. The more exotic sort of thing you try to do the more likely you may inadvertently break something. That said, have fun with it, try the live distro, then dual booting first, and if you do break something you can easily reinstall, until you’re ready to move fully.
As everyone is saying, Linux can be perfectly stable, depending on your distribution.
The only thing I’d think about is that you could have to tweak a few things to get everything working at the beginning.
For instance, I had nothing to change to make everything work in Fedora on my Surface Go, but I gad to enable rom fusion in the terminal to get the wifi working on my wife’s MacBook Pro.
Otherwise, you can just enjoy your Linux distribution as long as you don’t want to do crazy stuff out of the beaten paths.
Just go ahead and try. You don’t really need our permission to do that. Most distros support “live install” direct from the installation media, without making changes to your system. If you don’t like it, reboot and you’re back to whatever you had before
Have fun!
And to answer your double negation questions, yes and yes.
It’s as stable as you want it to be. I break my system a lot more than expected because I’m deleted directories and files I’m not supposed to. Experimenting with a bunch of stuff. My laptop is using the same distro (Arch) and I don’t do weird stuff with it so it runs perfectly fine.
Most problems I run into with Linux are caused by me doing weird things. Linux doesn’t prevent you from messing with things you don’t understand but if you just want to use it as a standard desktop then you shouldn’t have many issues aside from finding replacement applications for things you are used to using.
If you decide to start tinkering, just keep a backup of your home directory since it contains all your settings and files.
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