I've tried Mint and Ubuntu and other flavours I can't always remember, various different frontends, I've used Raspbian, octopi, I've installed alternative Android OSes, and none of them have alleviated the pain of installing an OS that fucks up basic things on a regular basis.

Hell, just yesterday I was following a tutorial on how to install an audio amplifier on a retropie and it just failed. The audio test keeps going wrong in different ways each time I try. Every piece of hardware and software involved was known to the tutorial and matched to mine exactly, and still something unknown went wrong and I'll have to hunt down the reason. Something to do with GPIONext.service not starting properly. It's going to be a painful couple of hours mashing my face against this issue until I can figure it out, at the very least.

Like, nice pitch but I've heard too many times "this flavour of Linux is the perfect beginner distro!" only to find that no, this platform has more rough edge than surface and a fresh coat of paint hasn't changed that.

All I'm saying is that if a ubiquitous AI spy is the future of Windows then I guess I am forced to deal with that pain if the only alternative I can envision is to walk into the sea and never return.