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I had to use Windows at work - gov’t contractor. When it broke I’d call the local IT guy to “come on down and fix this piece of crap - I’ll put some coffee on”. Good guy, easy to work with.

I use unix systems. The primary reason is reliability. Second reason is Windows just gets in my way. I’m an old command-line guy. Right now I’m on Firefox, have a couple of PDF files open on other screens, eight terminals open for different functions on other workspaces. My screen manager has 16 individual workspaces for use (essentially individual monitors without extra hardware), although I start getting lost at 5 screens or so. This is a standard FreeBSD installation - nothing fancy, but it suits me and doesn’t break. I can retitle the terminals; that helps *grin*.

Wife’s Linux Mint installation has four individual “workspaces”, essentially four individual monitors again without the extra hardware. It also does not break. She likes it - lotsa pretty graphics and you have to use the mouse, but that’s her speed. Terminals are also available if you want to get down and grunt, she just doesn’t use them. Doesn’t know how.

Windows severely restricts operations that are everyday simple stuff on unix boxes. I like my freedom on the unix boxes.

I started with toggle switches on an Altair 8800. That may have permanently pranged me.
I’m a dinosaur.

Wife's Linux Mint installation has four individual “workspaces”, essentially four individual monitors again without the extra hardware. It also does not break. She likes it - lotsa pretty graphics and you have to use the mouse, but that's her speed. Terminals are also available if you want to get down and grunt, she just doesn't use them. Doesn't know how.

Most users are like your wife. I can get into the nitty gritty when necessary, but sometimes it leads to a lot of frustration after I have slightly mistyped a command for the 4th time.

Yesterday, I was trying to correct a problem with a hard drive that was no longer being recognized by windows or any of my data recovery programs using a USB to TTL adapter and PuTTY as the terminal working with a list of Seagate F3 Commands.

I didn't get very far because the drive was locked, but at least I found enough diagnostics information to realize that the problem was much worse than I had originally presumed. My next step was going to be removing and reballing a couple of large original BGA chips onto a donor board. It would have taken me hours and would not have been successful even if I had successfully swapped the board and chips.

Anyway... what a mess but there is no way to do this type of work using a graphical interface. It all goes back to the basics.