... Linux (steep learning-curve, high maintenance).
You haven't tried Linux in the last 20 years have you?
It's like the old joke about how Windows constantly crashes to the BSOD. It was true a couple decades ago but not so much anymore.
Most modern Linux installers are completely automated. All the user has to do is answer some basic questions like user name, keyboard layout, wifi pass phrase, ect. and then sit back and let the install happen. The last time I used a Windows Installer (about 14 years ago) it asked me those same questions. And I've also found that the Linux installers have better hardware support than the Windows installers of the same era
The argument about the steep learning curve really doesn't apply considering that with each new version of Windows MS has changed the UI requiring the user to re-learn everything almost from scratch. I don't know about other DEs out there but the one I've been using for 15-20 years, Trinity, hasn't changed at all. It supports all the new apps and such but is consistently stable.
As for "high maintenance" I have to ask you how many times have you had to restart your Windows system in the last year because of some update or patch? My fully updated linux box has only had one reboot in that time, and that was only because I wanted to clear the /tmp folder of all the old stuff I had been putting there while I worked some projects. Unlike Windows Linux can install almost all it's updates without requiring a reboot, only exception to that is when it involves the actual GNU/Linux kernel or video driver.
Purely from personal experience over the last 30 years of working in IT I would have to say that Windows has a steeper learning curve version to version and far higher maintenance than Linux ever has.