That implication would be a bad one, but in the specific case of a bland Linux distro (let's say Debian) vs. Windows I haven't ever seen much difference between

That implication would be a bad one, but in the specific case of a bland Linux distro (let's say Debian) vs. Windows I haven't ever seen much difference between the number of problems you run into. The major difference for me is that Linux problems are always theoretically operator-fixable i.e. the information needed to fix your problem is available to you, even if you're not technical enough to understand it. The means to fix Windows problems are frequently not accessible at all, anywhere. While I've had plenty of Linux evenings, I've had stuff broken on Windows that stretched into weeks until I finally gave up and reinstalled.