Oh boy, here comes a lenghty reply.
Talking from my own experience I've never really used Linux that much, my rigs have always used Windows as their main OS and Linux was just limited to recovery drives/live distros or whenever Windows couldn't run (ex. ARM devices). However, a few months ago I've decided to make the switch and use Debian as my main OS. The reasoning behind that is rather simple: Windows 10 by itself is not a bad OS, in fact it started as a worthy successor to 7, however Microsoft's decisions, especially their recent ones, ruined the experience for me.
Initially I had no problems with it. I was happy I took the opportunity to upgrade for free from 7 and I heard some users reported issues here and there but I had none, really. The idea of using a tool to decrapify Windows 10 post-installation wasn't particularly great, sure, but I could live with that as long as I didn't have to run it after every update. However, as time went by, problems started to pile up. First, there was the minor annoyance of suggested apps not being able to be turned off and uninstalled without digging in the registry. Then one time after an update all the privacy & telemetry settings got erased and I had to go through the wizard again. After that, more serious stuff begain to appear with the dreaded 1803 build: drivers which I rolled back that I told the OS not to touch were replaced which caused some stuff to break, settings that shouldn't be changed were reverted, Microsoft started to push UWP apps which changed how some stuff worked without telling you first (that caused me a headache when the mic suddenly stopped working in several native apps), uninstalled UWP apps started to pop back up... And of course, while you can roll back an update, there is no way to tell the OS to postpone it beforehand or simply ignore it like you could with previous versions of Windows.
So at one time I simply decided to draw a line and say "no more". Initially I tried Arch because I heard so much about it and I wanted to give it a shot, however later I settled for Debian both because I like it and also as its one of the most reliable distros out there, its package updates are thoroughly tested before they're pushed to the repos.
Now, let's consider the Linux side of things. I know I could jump ship because most software I use either had a port or alternative, basically all games I actively play with no native ports run well under Wine/Proton (with the exception of Paladins) and my hardware has great Linux driver support. I pretty much unintentionally hit a jackpot there but that's not always the case: you've probably heard the stories of nvidia/noveau acting weird after an update, buggy/unfinished drivers, unsupported hardware, etc so of course I'm not telling you here to make the switch yourself. If you run Windows 10 and you have no problems with it then by all means, keep it.
Still, if you ask my own opinion, then I'm going to say it's a shame how Microsoft's decisions have plagued my experience of what I'd otherwise call a great OS. Of course this is subjective but it's hard to view this from a completely objective point of view, afterall that's one of the reasons why people tend to judge Windows 10 in such polarized ways. When it comes to me so far I'm more than happy with my Debian setup, but if Microsoft decides to pull a 180 then I can totally see myself going back in the future.
After doing a little bit more reading a little (not a lot) more into it. My opinion of Linux has gone much, much higher.
I thought it was just some contrarian OS that people used just to say that they did. Now I actually understand the appeal a bit more.
I still think Windows is objectively better purely because more things are optimized/made for it.
And it’s also extremely biased because I’ve used Windows XP and 7 my whole life, so I can’t really give a valid opinion on Linux anyway.
Honestly, one of the biggest issues I've seen when people judge Linux without having tried it before is that they think their experience with Windows is going to carry over to it. That way they think everything they know is going to work like they'd expect and when they find out it doesn't, they get disappointed and go back.
If you decide to take the time and learn how to set up and use it properly then you'll already begin to see why it is the way it is. I personally like a few points of the UNIX philosophy, especially how everything is a file (it makes interacting with devices so much easier) and how there's one tool for each task designed to do only that specific job but very well (reduces clutter and redundancy and helps immensely to build up a powerful arsenal of tools at your disposal). I also like how most distros include package manager which takes care of installing software and their dependencies for you and how customizable the OS is.
Still, I can see why the average user gets scared of all of this. They just want something that they're used to, that works out of the box and most are scared when they see something even closely resembling the command line - and oh boy you're going to use the terminal a lot if you use a Linux distro. Not to mention, due to the previously mentioned one-tool philosophy Bash commands can get ridiculously complex when compared to what you're used to in Windows. Plus, to their credit, the Linux community isn't really known for being newb-friendly.
If you ask me, there's no point in saying whether Windows or Linux is better, both have their pros and cons and both have their uses. Sure, they're both OSes, meaning they're designed to get the same job done but they work in so different ways that they simply can't be compared fairly, a bit how apples and oranges are both fruits and have their similiarities but they're fundamentally different when you examine them up close.
