> Installing Linux 22-years ago, when XP shipped, was hugely painful There was a weird sweet spot for Linux around 2000-2004, very short, where most things jus

> Installing Linux 22-years ago, when XP shipped, was hugely painful There was a weird sweet spot for Linux around 2000-2004, very short, where most things just worked. Sure, there was very little gaming, but you could get by just fine and installations was reasonably simple, Redhat, Slackware, Debian, SuSE, Mandrake, Caldera, they all just worked. Sure you had to be a little selective regarding hardware, but it wasn't a massive issue. Interaction with Windows mostly worked without issues, but as Windows XP became more dominate, and especially as Internet Explorer and newer versions of Office took over, things got worse. Still for a few short years, those of us who got into Linux in that tiny windows of time, didn't actually struggle as much as people think. We could do online shopping, word processing, online banking and a little casual gaming. Come 2005 and that was all gone.