They just jump on that desktop and go.
Like if they can't read the tiny font in the file menu. Then they google it, and discover they need to "sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-tool." Then they manage to actually find a terminal window and run the command, and install the tool, and turn up every available font rendering option, and it still doesn't solve their problem.
That is just one real world example. Linux is an operating system used and built primarily by people who are willing to put up with a little bit of crap to get 99% of what they want, and live with the rest. Imagine if Windows or OSX required you to open a terminal and install a third party lib to increase your font size. People would call them insane.
Just to be clear: I use a linux desktop every day. I love it and it would require a substantial increase in compensation for me to switch back to a Windows machine. But saying that computer illiterate/naive workforce can switch operating systems with no retraining costs is demonstrably false.
In my experience, the big problem in organizations are legacy documents and formats. Especially Excel. LibreOffice is good but it's not going to run the macros that were created 10 years ago by guys that are now retired in some beach.
The other big problem is specialized software (already amortized) that only run in Windows.
The funny thing is that kind of problems happens even between different versions of windows.
In fact, I see about 5 times as many Windows issues as Linux issues. And it's easier to fix a Linux machine.
This story that you are telling about how Windows is easy and Linux is hard, and about how there will be this big transition cost, is just bs.
Again, it's just one example. Others are far worse: try to figure out how to play a song or some other audio into a skype call by piping data directly into the mic input channel. It's pretty trivial in windows, and there are third party tools with easy to understand GUIs if you can't figure it out on your own. On Linux you'll be futzing with jackd configs for hours.
I don't like arbitrarily changing UX either, but it's not like Windows doesn't have that problem. I had massive switching headaches moving to the new "ribbon" based stuff in Microsoft Office.
Of course neither side is perfect, but I am thoroughly unconvinced by the "unusable" argument. THere are definitely biases with ignoring the headaches that Windows forces upon users.
For your first example ctrl double swipe on my trackpad works pretty much everywhere and ctrl +/- works everywhere except my terminal where ctrl-shift +/- does the job.
As for your second. This is not a common use case that any non-technical person would even think of trying. If you needed to I would suggest ignoring jackd (whatever that is) and using the gui for pulse audio control.
The second example is used by people who play video games all the time. People do it for skype/ventrilo calls during gaming sessions constantly. It may not be a common use for _for you_ but it is not as rare as you appear to think.
But at least I can ssh into their rigs after the fact and fix them remotely. Trying to get them running teamviewer every time there is a problem on Windows is a nightmare.
Also consider the #1 reason I get called is because people install some virus or spyware or clickjacker by clicking and running random stuff off the Internet. On any Linux based distro none of that stuff works so what ends up happening is my repeat customers every 2-4 months are Windows users and the dozen or so clients I have using some flavor of Ubuntu might email me once a year like "can I run X?" and I just go look on playonlinux if its supported or not. Libreoffice opens all the old Doc and XLS files fine, their printers work, their wifi works, they can use their crappy 1995 webmail client from their ISP no problem, and they even get neat perks like having their phone rings show up in their desktop notifications if they use KDEConnect.
My experience is that there is no substantial difference in the amount of "fucking around" you have to do with Windows or Linux. I had to install custom graphics drivers from third party sites, install custom keyboards, mess around with random settings, especially after upgrades between different OS versions.
Please show me an actual study instead of talking about personal anecdotes.
I do not think you are truly interested in changing your mind.
>discover they need to "sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-tool."
This is disingenuous, they would just install it through the app store like on a phone.
Yes, the UI is different, but the concepts you're dealing with are still the same and if you know the concepts then a new UI is just a small and temporary inconvenience, rather then a barrier.
The biggest problem will actually be incompatibilities, which happen for example with advanced usage of Excel documents, but you know, in such cases it's better to switch to portable formats that work across multiple products (i.e. ODF) and it's better to do it sooner rather than later, because as a freaking government you should keep your documents accessible for everybody. And if you switch to portable formats and a set of features supported in both Microsoft Office and LibreOffice, you don't even have to move everybody to LibreOffice at once. So on the whole I feel that this is a red herring.
Why do government workers always need formal retraining? Every job i've ever worked involved constant intake of new skills without dropping tools and attending a class. For a new OS in an office environ that generally boils down to "Here is your new OS. Play around with the colours if you want, but that memo is still due Thursday."