Get a spare computer. Then you will feel more inclined to mess with it. And your main computer is always ready to look up issues and set up boot USB sticks. You will definitely try out lots more distros without hesitation.

And there are some cool mini PCs to buy quite cheap.

Many churches have a bible that the church want's you to believe without question. Which is known as faith. It is better to question everything.

In this case I wouldn't associate the poor usability with the designers, I think its down to big business not caring. Plus it costs more to make a UI good, and flexible for different user situations. They'll also hire the cheapest designers. It's all about saving money and more profit. Their main aim. And in the case of monopolies, people can't go elsewhere. The problems all come down from the top.

Ah. True. Thanks. Yes dark times with hardware compatibility back then.

Not at all.They are 2 ways do the same thing. The GUI can tell you what options are available. The CLI needs you to memorise them, or go somewhere else to look them up.

Thanks. I've tried it. But it's not a permanent mount. The program needs to be running all the time. And it frequently times out. A very poor experience. Other OSs do much better.

Yes. When I use particularly badly designed software, where you know it's from a lazy, cost cutting money grabbing company, and you know you need 8x more clicks, and where any miss-step, means you have to start again, I have great trouble motivating myself to use it.

Depends what you are doing on Windows. I've never needed the command line.

The CLI has lots of hurdles. Such having a blank screen with no prompts. Where the GUI shows the options you have. And 1 click to set the option. And how to unset the option is obvious. You only need to half remember a feature. Not precisely memorise and type command exactly or it will fail. Or worse, delete something you need. The GUI is preferred by the vast majority for good reason.

I launch favourite commands with 2 clicks. Once on the App launcher button, and once on the App itself. My hand is on the mouse anyway. So it's fast. Way faster than typing a whole bunch of characters. For less used apps It's 3 clicks as I'd open a category like "Media" or "Games". And doing that, I get to see what I have in there. This builds up a picture in the users head for future use. Learning "Add to favourites" is time well spent. It can even be called "Pin to Start" or "Bookmark on Launcher" it doesn't matter. You don't need to memorise that exactly like the CLI. And right-clicking things is already second nature to huge numbers of users.

So I have no incentive to use text commands. It's not faster. My hand is on the mouse for my apps anyway. And the CLI has terrible usability, via poor learnability, zero tolerance, and poor visual feedback. And completely useless for most things I do, like working with 3D models, images or drawings. I'm not a "text-worker" like IT tend to be. Plus, I want more non-IT people to use Linux, so discovering the easy ways to do things can help spread the word to them.

For me it would be like stepping off a high-speed train and walking over uneven ground instead.

As a user, I can't choose, if a dev only releases an appimage. Then it's a real pain or I skip the app.

Yes. Owning a car is a constant expense. For something that gets used a small percent of the day.

I rent if I ever need a car. The rent by-the-minute schemes near me include charging or fuel, insurance and everything for ~25ct/minute. Ideal for local trips with passengers. Otherwise I bike everywhere in Munich.