The windows one seems exaggerated until you try to set it up with a regular local account.

Setting up a scratch install VM is such a pain.

Isn't debloated windows just a regular windows install after running https://github.com/Sycnex/Windows10Debloater ? Is there more to it?

Hobbyist here, in my opinion reading the manual or the wiki is easy, understanding it quickly is not. You can obvioulsy follow the instructions blindly and still succeed.

For the most part is very comprehensive but sometimes you are left alone to connect the dots which is very daunting when instructions get technical and you do not understand them.

In the end it felt like one of those half semester courses Universities try to cram in.

Hey! You missed nixos!

First time install for smb. Double the windows Bar.

Second time (if you backed up your config file)

No bar!

I set up a kiosk on a Linux Mint machine today. From blank, unformatted drive to fully deployed kiosk, it took less time than just installing a base install of win11.

Unless you install Linux mint with multiple displays. Holy 1 sec flickering sideways displays Batman. I don’t remember what I did exactly to fix but probably single display until drivers are all installed.

Why is Debian more difficult than Fedora? I could understand older versions, but these days they fixed pretty much all the small annoyances. No need to use the "nonfree" iso, because that's integrated into the installer. And post install sudo works as expected out of the box. I'd say they should be equal.

Debloated windows is very easy. Installs super fast and I don't even have to be there to push any buttons.