Interesting. For the Nokia N900 there is Maemo Leste which also uses mainline Linux (+ a few patches they are working to mainline) and there everything works. Mind that works means in this case: Does what I want if I issue a number of console commands. However most of it by now even works via the GUI.

Keep in mind that Leste is a project by a few enthusiasts and writing drivers for undocumented hardware is a monumental task, writing GUI for a whole mobile OS is also complicated. So it is utterly astonishing, how far they got!

Sure because Error Code 0x8007057 tells you immediately how to solve the problem.

Linux error messages like error: kex_exchange_identification: client sent invalid protocol identifier "GET /robots.txt HTTP/1.1" are completely arcane tough.

I support both systems. And Linux support is so much easier. Mostly in runs out of the box. If it runs I continues to do so and If you have an error you get a specific message like above.

With such a message you either:

• See right away how to solve the problem
• Search it online and get a specific solution for exactly you problem
• Or you can ask Experts for a solution for your specific problem.

With Windows: No systems runs out of the box, I always have to install additional software (7zip, sane browser, …) and also for anybody remotely privacy concerned have to adjust many settings (for which tools exist thankfully)

If an error occurs under Windows and I get a code like above:

• I can sometimes guess by my experience what the reason is and solve it.
• If not I search the error code and circumstances which lead to it online, then apply the 20 solutions presented one by one in hope one works
• Ask experts which ask me to run a bunch of diagnostic utilities because the error message does not tell you anything. (Yes by now I can also guess which utility could provide relevant information, but not because Windows told me)
• In a noticeable amount of cases the solution is: We can not determine the reason for the error, please reset everything (First a restart, then run this cleanup tool and if this doesn’t help just reinstall!)

I am very happy if you can enlighten me. Granted, I do not install Windows very often (otherwise I would bake all these things into an image), and there may be improvements. So feel free to make your point and save me time.

An no, security updates can’t run in the background. If I sit a user in front of a PC, the PC has to be secure. Which means that the zero day exploits from a few days ago which are already exploited in the wild have to be fixed. Also yes, software for basic tasks and configuration till usability is reached is part of an operating system install. Otherwise you have to compare the time to install a barebones Linux (1 Minute) with a bare Windows install (still 30 minutes).

I currently use chocolatey for automation of software installs. But Libreoffice alone takes minutes to install on Windows even on fast PCs. If you know a better/faster tool I am happy to listen.

For me the 30 minutes to install is about right. After that I have usable Linux and an unusable Windows.

To get Windows to the same state:

• Add 5 Minutes for clicking trough the "Do you want to enable handwriting? ((( We just allow ourselves to collect samples of everything you write to “improve our recognition engine” )))
• Add 20-30 minutes of security updates (thankfully it got much faster with SSDs, before it could have been hours)
• Add 20-30 minutes of installing necessary software like an office suite, PDF Reader with basic functionality, 7zip. This is only 30 minutes because I spent hours automating the downloads and installs trough scripts.
• If it is my system or a company system: Add 20 minutes to go trough the settings of Win10Privacy to at least reduce the phoning home and to enable some necessary settings for working with the system like “Don’t restart at random times”
• Add 10 Minutes to remove the installed bloatware like People, Windows Maps, Windows Experience Host, …

In summary:
Linux requires 5 minutes attention and is ready after 30min.
Windows requires 40 minutes of attention and is somewhat ready after 2h30min. Even if I skip the privacy stuff its still at about 1h20min.

To be fair: On Windows and Linux I immediately install ublock to Firefox afterwards, on Linux I run a single apt command to install some more niche software which takes about 3 minutes on a fast network connection.