I've been predominantly a Linux user on desktop/laptop since 1995. It has literally never been easier; to install, to use, to find hardware that works (even weird stuff like pro audio devices and oddball controllers), and to act like it's a "normal" computer without having to worry about drivers, kernels, X, etc.

I have had at least as much trouble from my Windows partition and my Android phones as I have from my Linux (mostly Fedora and CentOS) systems.

There really is no longer a credible case to be made that Linux is hard to use on the desktop. I even lend my older computers out to extremely non-technical friends (the kind who don't own a computer) without having to go into any significant detail about how to use Linux; they figure it out in a few minutes, mostly on their own.

If you wanted to make that case even as recently as maybe five years ago, I wouldn't have argued. But, really...the Linux desktop experience today is excellent, certainly comparable to Windows or Mac OS X. And, with Steam providing a huge variety of Linux games, I haven't rebooted into Windows in almost a year (I used to reboot for video projection work, but am no longer involved in that business...I was on the verge of switching even that to Linux, and had I done any more of those jobs it would have been with Linux).

> There really is no longer a credible case to be made that Linux is hard to use on the desktop.

No, Linux desktop is as easy to use as Windows (sometimes perhaps easier), the problem is one layer lower: the drivers.

1. Bluetooth breaks about every 3-4 months. 2. Wifi. Where do I start. Say: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Wireless_network_config... "If you have problems connecting to networks in general or your link quality is very poor, try to disable 802.11n" -- are you kidding me? Then if you have anything complicated, chances are you are completely and totally screwed. Examples: a) PPPoE over Wifi is simply not supported. b) The only way I found to connect to my work VPN is via a Firefox-running-as-root (I kid you not -- and it wasn't me me who came up with this solution obviously). 3. Battery life. http://unix.stackexchange.com/a/119620/9452 4. USB 3.0. Sure, NEC and Intel hosts are supported. Throw your card away if it's not NEC. 5. Hybrid graphics.

On to the destkop:

1. Skype. Say what you want, Microsoft abandoned it and Skype is a huge part of communications these days, sorry. 2. Chrome and hardware acceleration.

I haven't experienced any of those problems. On the WiFi front, I live a challenging WiFi life, because I travel full-time, and connect up to RV park WiFi regularly. I don't find it problematic. I don't know what chipset my laptop has, as I've never had to look into it. It's a shitty HP lappy. My desktop has had several different USB and PCI WiFi adapters without major issue. I do remember I did check google to make sure I was buying a compatible one, though, it wasn't hard to pick one that was known to be well-supported, even at Best Buy or Fry's.

Likewise, USB 3.0 works fine for me. I dunno what chipset any of my devices have, but they all work.

As for Skype, I used to use it regularly, and then switched to Hangouts. Skype worked fine on Linux up until I switched. I dunno the state of it now, but I don't need it, so it's no big deal. Both Google and Facebook have video chat and phone call features built right into their messenger apps, and they work fine on Linux; Skype is deprecated, IMHO.