Your mother in law asked specifically for Linux?

Partly agree. I once installed Firefox with uBlock Origin for someone who was Chrome user on an old PC and complained it was slow when browsing, and they told me that they didn't even know that there were different browsers available.

I'm the IT guy to most of the elderly people in my life, and steadily switching them over to Linux Mint over the years. Fact of the matter is, most of them use their OS as a gateway to their web browser, and don't care to do anything else with it. For many non-technical users, switching OSes is literally a non-thing. The only difference vs Windows is that they call me for assistance way less frequently.

you are telling me that everyone in your life freely swaps between windows and mac without even noticing a difference? no problems?

i call bullshit. i have worked in very big orgs. changing a single icon can cause a deluge of support tickets.

I've been using Linux for about 27 years now and yet there are still some things I begrudgingly use Windows for (can also rephrase: one machine that does certain things).

I own more (and have them running right now) machines with linux than anything else and yet I'm not saying people can just switch. The problem is usually not "can do at all costs" but "can do with a reasonable addition of extra steps/relearning/tool does not exist/etc". There's some nuance and when I have some spare time I will (again) try to switch that one machine, but "it just works" maybe can also mean you're not using it for a diverse enough set of things.

In my case the reasons are actually quite boring: some hardware I couldn't get running and some (maybe minor) things that drive me nuts. The hardware is kind of a deal breaker atm. And yes, some people do a lot more weird things at home, my work machines were running Linux for 90% of the time since 2010ish.

Sure. Can you go down my well to replace the pump? Can you figure out what shots my cat needs? Can verify my companies books balances via GAAP? Can you tell me what the correct slump we need to make sure this bridge stands? The list of things I can ask goes on much much longer. In all cases you can learn to do that, but you cannot live long enough to learn to do all of the above.

As a 15 year old your mind is flexible in ways that most people's are not. As you get older you will realize the cost of changing the way you are used to doing things. Take advantage of your young brain and try all the things

Personal ability cannot be the universal baseline, sadly