Yup. I started about ten years ago with the Debian Hamm flavor. It took about four install trys before I got it to boot. Now things go so good that installers work flawlessly and as you said, better than windows, and no driver worries for the most part you can forget even needing the CD or to dig around for drivers. Things just work for the most part.
Linux is right now a viable alternative for almost any user, yes, some things take a bit of RTFM"img but ya gotta learn somewhere. If everyone used linux the zombie nets, worms, trojans, malware and virus would be history. I just love to open email and look at the binary time bombs and laugh.
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