Dan

Good information, thank you. I've been happy with my $200 Dell Latitude. I put Linux Mint MATE on it without much difficulty and it works great. But I hear putting Linux on a laptop can be a bit of a crap shoot. So I'll remember to keep Thinkpads in mind.

Mint is stable and easy to use, but that doesn't make it a tricycle. If you need the latest version of software, you can use a flatpak. I did that with one app, once, because the newer version had a feature I wanted. Otherwise, have you ever noticed that software updates are pretty incremental? If you want to make your life more difficult, knock yourself out.

Out of curiosity, I've installed MX Linux with Plasma on a partition. It's fun and I like it. But I haven't discovered anything it can do that Mint can't do.

"the extreme end of the Linux subculture."

Yes, this is who the article describes. And doesn't every subculture have an extreme end?

But to the opening point of the article--that we don't want everyone to adopt Linux--there's something to that. As I understand it, the relative rarity of the Linux desktop is one key thing that makes it an unpopular target for malignant actors. That, in turn, helps keep it relatively safe.

The Linux desktop can be very easy to use. My 95 y/o mother, who is functionally blind, gets along pretty well on hers. I have had to do essentially zero maintenance on it for the past year or two. No initiation, no fire ants.

I like the Tables function in Excel. LO Calc doesn't have a similar function.

Other than that--which is a nice to have, not a need to have--LO does everything for me that MS Office would. YMMV.

I think it's unkind and inaccurate to characterize it as "bloat," but otherwise I agree with the article. Linux does ask a little more of you. If you (metaphorically?) would rather drive your car to the mall than take a walk in the woods, you might be better served with Windows. Plenty of Linux distros are super easy to set up and use. But first you (or someone on your behalf) needs to choose a distro, and that right there is some work; and either you (or someone on your behalf) does need to have at least a modicum of curiosity about how your computer works in order to successfully make the switch.