Switched my family to Mint a while ago. It is genuinely seamless. They didn't notice, other than the background changed (and I slowed my haranguing them about virus safety).

Not all Steam games are available, but enough are to keep you busy.

Have you watched the video, this guy linked? It basically tries this, from the perspective of a linux beginner switching from windows.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30585462

It is 15 minutes, if nothing goes wrong and you know what you are doing. If something goes wrong and you are not native with the terminal - good luck.

The point was not that Linux is grandma-friendly as an OS, the point was that you do not necessarily have to delay installing it until you get a new computer, and may even negate the need for a new computer (certainly it's added years to various laptops in my orbit).

"Fifteen minutes to get up and running with Ubuntu or Mint if you stay focused."

This sounds to me like it is all easy and if it takes longer than 15 minutes, it is my fault for not being focused.

Well, as a matter of fact, I did install linux on various devices, dozen of times. And with my own customized manjaro install usb stick even in less than 15 minutes, with all my needed software up and running.

But I would never, ever tell anyone that he can expect a flawless install in 15 minutes. This is not realistic. It may happen, if you are lucky - but there are too many buggy drivers and compatibility issues and even official mainstream distros getting shipped with major open bugs, that this advise is just receipt for disapointement.

And zoom. I know Linux but I’m not a sys admin by any stretch. I’ve been using Linux as my personal laptop for 3 years now. It updates itself and has required hardly any manual intervention (just once I had to command line for an upgrade. Generally it’s justed worked.

The upgrader/installers are not perfect but it’s hardly so difficult that software developer would find it daunting.