Reading your comment (and replies to) is a bit interesting because I almost never see an admission that Linux is anything but gods gift to humanity. (yes, I exaggerate, bot not too much). It's nice to see more reflection and honesty about various annoyances that came with it.

I remember being told (circa 2005) that my PC issues would be resolved if I just switched from Windows to Linux.

I tried Linux a few times back then, and it never stuck. I would hit some small issue that I couldn't solve and eventually I'd give up and go back to Window (which certainly had its own problems, but I wasn't under any illusion that it was a flawless)

I use Linux more now (mostly as part of WSL) and I really enjoy it when I get to use it.