I adopted Linux on my home PC about 12 years ago, but I could never get the “Linux box” in a state where I could replace my wife’s until Win11 came out. At the time, I noticed a lot of improvements that allowed a seamless transition and I was finally able to replace her Win10 install with a KDE setup. She barely noticed the difference. The only real challenge was her migration from Outlook to Thunderbird.

But I think the reality is that, apart from Linux enthusiasts, no one really cares for using FOSS or not. Most simply want their PC to work and not be a nuisance. And it seems that more and more, that is the case for Linux.

XigmaNAS user here… Only downside to that is that you will only find out the USB drive is bad when rebooting (happened to me once). But keeping good backups for the configuration makes recovering a 5 min thing.