Ease of use... stability, passing 6 months w/o having to deeply debug some system issue...

1. Ease of use I can give you. That being said, Linux for me is way easier to use than OS X or Windows so I think that's relative.

2. I'm sorry but I really can't agree with you at all about stability. Linux is incredibly stable, especially on a laptop designed for Linux. Linux on a MacBook, sure, it's awful. A Network manager update completely stopped my ability to connect to the internet and I had to downgrade it and prevent it from updating for a bit.

On my XPS? Not a single issue, and I'm on an "unstable" distribution.

I think that if there isn't some software that you absolutely need that has no Linux alternative then you should really give it a shot.

Stability is a concern but it's notable that this machine is running a recent long-term support version of Ubuntu so shouldn't need any TLC in the short term.

Ease of use is very subjective and can't really argue with what people are used to. I do know that from a physical point of view that Linux lets me configure a mouse to not give me RSI.

It's not like that anymore. What stability? What have you had to deeply debug lately with a laptop that has known or supported linux.