No it's not. Linux presents complications to the average user much deeper than security. Windows will configure most of your hardware automatically, as long as the stuff is older than the OS you probably won't even have to remember what the hardware is to tell Windows, Windows will spot it, figure out what it is and load the drivers during install.
Oh I'm sure there's a way to make your installs silent on Linux and OSX, do you approve every single file that gets laid down?
Umm I just installed fedora on my old pII 400 (redhat 9 is on my dell P4). After installing on the old computer I found a new burner drive plugged it in and it worked without any configuration. The fact is moder Linux distributions handle hardware just as easily as widows the only are they are really weak in is bleeding edge video cards (a few month delay). My camera, printer, scanner, HD and dvdrom all worked right out of the box on Linux..
The hell of having to deal with libraries was more than four years ago Redhat/Suse/and Mandrake have all packaged in the hardware support..
And on a unix system other than being the root user you can not do a transparent install! You can install plugins and the like in your home directory but they are not system wide (if a kid installs something stupid it will not affect your account).