It still depends on the hardware you have. If you have hardware that’s fully supported by the kernel version your distro is running, then it’s easy. But as soon as you add a piece of hardware that isn’t, there’s a good chance you need to spend a lot of time searching how to fix it. Buying a new mouse and all of a sudden not having sleep work is not a power user problem IMO.

Unfortunately, Linux isn’t quite there yet for casual users. I tried it every year, and there was always something that was annoying enough that I switched back to Windows with O&O ShutUp10. This is the first year that I’ve been happy enough with my install that I’ve started using it as my daily OS. But even this year, I had 2 really annoying issues that I had to spend time searching to fix.

• After putting my computer to sleep, it would immediately wake back up. Eventually found out it was my Logitech wireless dongle that was causing the issue. I had to create a script that disabled USB ports during sleep and a systemd service to make sure it activated on every boot.

• After waking from sleep, my screen was black with only my cursor visible. Running sudo systemctl restart display-manager sometimes worked, but that wasn’t a solution. After searching the web some more, I found an arch wiki explaining that it was an issue with my Nvidia GPU. So then I had to edit a modprobe file and finally I was happy with my install.

I’m super happy that I can finally use Linux full-time, but the fact I had to mess around in terminal to fix the issues associated with my hardware means most casual users will just go straight back to Windows. I’ve seen a lot of Linux users say, “just don’t use Nvidia”, but buying a new GPU isn’t a solution for most people. My hardware isn’t even that weird: AMD 5800x3d, x570 chipset, Nvidia GPU. Linux is getting there, it’s closer than it’s ever been. But it’s not there yet.

If you’re looking to rent a matrix server, I highly recommend etke. Faily cheep for what they offer and great support. As far as your concerns for noise suppression, the best workaround atm is to use Nvidia RTX Voice and AMD’s Noise Suppression features. At least until Element either builds in their AI noise suppression, or adds PTT.

I don’t think that’s a fair comparison. If companies could get away with making a car as unsafe as the model T, you’d probably see quite a few $10k cars on the road. But as it stands today, most cars are required by law to have all sorts of safety features built in.

As our standard of living and safety goes up, so does the price of goods because more is required to go into R&D and manufacturing.