I discovered that, almost without noticing it, I had been using LinuxMint MATE for about a dozen years. Even when I install a Debian system, I use the MATE desktop with that also.

Before Linux, I was using Solaris as my daily driver. That was good too.

There are many reasons Windows beat Unix.

Windows didn't beat UNIX. Linux beat UNIX. The rise of the Linux-based internet was what killed both UNIX and Windows servers.