The big thing that changed side 2010 is that most distros are perfectly usable on most hardware.

I keep tossing Linux onto random stupid hardware I have lying around, and lately it just goes spectacularly well.

I should be ashamed of even asking if Linux will run on it, but Linux ends up running well on it.

Around 2010, I used to tell people that if they did their research and used Mint, for simple web stuff, they’re going to be fine.

Lately I end up telling people “I don’t know how to do that advanced thing you’re debating which Windows product to pay for, because, of the last three random Linux distros I tried, all thee provided it for free and pre-configured with sensible defaults”.

I’m sure there’s still plenty of interesting reasons to need a paid operating system. But for the simple practical stuff, I find Linux so much easier, even on my random poorly researched distros and hardware combinations.

I might well have just had an incredibly lucky streak, of course.