Agreed with pretty much everything here. though with linux i think it mostly needs something that pushes and makes one single derivative the leading Linux OS that the vast majority uses so developers and AAA can actually be incentiviced to take "that one" and go from there instead of facing the choice and requests of the plentiful derivatives with no true overarching linux as is.

The OS market as a whole simply IS depressing, just no way around that fact sadly.

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Like in my experience:

Windows is simple, but lies to your face and changes/resets things unnoticed with updates. this OS is just getting worse and has been going downhill for quite a while, with the spied on user data, or "you, the User" being the product for their immeasurable corporate gain first and foremost and they don't actually care about you the user and with many things it's change for change sake.

MacOS is not much better here if not a bit more consistent and is also an expensive proprietary nightmarish hellscape where it's Apple's way, or no way, with little wiggle room nor choice.

Linux could be great and is free and open source, yet comes with "too much" choice in a way. is seemingly more fractured then ever and therefore has support and compatibility issues even among their own derivatives. Meanwhile this OS in general is also quite demanding in its many iterations and issues requiring that the user is quite a bit more advanced then average to keep it or the desired programs working. having done some IT support (for friends/family) many people can't really handle that (without excessive searching, frustration and or fucking things up at least a few times) so in general the public tends to avoid Linux which doesn't help its cause.

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Am currently still using windows 10 and when that is truly at its EOL i'll probably go back to Linux (Mint... Maybe another now?) for better or worse as i do like Linux, but dread facing the hands-on aspects again to just get the various common programs, education required junk apps and my games to just run without having to jump through multiple hoops, VM's and command line interface experiences.

EDIT: typos and such.

can concur, salvaged mine for free from the garbage bin two years ago, cleaned the insides from the dried liquid carpet remains that were the reasons it was tossed out (it probably shorted too) and it has been doing its thing here ever since i fixed it by simply spending a few hours cleaning. i even managed to fix it's obnoxious jet sounding whine after a year of being annoyed by that. which proved to be even more carpet remains deeper in the rotor. amongst the best damn things i own i'd say.