Linux is only “free” if you don’t value your time.
Easier to install and use than it was in the past, but not on par with Windows, yet.
I run both.
I run both.
Then you are making things harder on yourself than they need to be.
Linux can install with a few point-and-click decisions and a single reboot. That's better than Windows.
As far as ease of use, that is a *very* subjective parameter. I find Windows difficult because it won't work the way I work--it forces me to work the way it works. I find Linux a LOT easier to use.
It would take me hours(updates always fail ) to install Windows 10 ,run updates and install everything I would need but Linux Mint to have it the way I want takes about 30 to 45 minutes
hahaha.
Windows is only "better" if your time has no value.
Time is the reason I switched to Linux some years ago. I was in my office one morning, Windows had updates, and of course I had to reboot. I was a bit cranky that morning, so that reboot really irritated me. I then calculated how many *hours* of my life I had spent "rebooting" Windows -- which went way back to 1990 and Windows 3, for which you needed DOS, LOL.
I figured there had to be a better way. I knew about Apple (my first PC was a Macintosh II), but the hardware was just too expensive. I had heard about Linux, so I googled, downloaded a couple distros, and the rest is history.
With an XP Virtualbox installation and Wine for old games, there is not a single thing I miss about Windoze.