Started with Win3.11 (Thank God I didn't have to learn DOS). You spent half your time fixing bugs. No joke. First good version was Win2000, which you usually had to pirate or have a biz owner make you a copy.
Fun fact: When I started, a PC cost $2,500 dollars (well over $5K today) and everyone was smart and nice. You could meet girls on ICQ and they wouldn't stab you.
Some of these things may seem small but not having one or two may drive you nuts over time. I call them "the killer lack". I really don't lack anything with Zorin. But we're not a gamers and don't need MS Office or Photoshop for work.
As the free office suites get closer to MS Office and Gimp gets closer to PS, there may come a tipping point. Personally, I would get rid of patent and copyright laws and just let people make clones (nearly everything you own was made in Shenzhen China where they pretty much ignore patent laws).
If Linux got to 25%, the game developers couldn't ignore it.
HaHa. The DOS CLI and Keyboard jockeys had this alien Windows and Mouse thing put in front of them. That sort of slowed productivity for a while. At first, DOS prompt still got used a lot to do things on the OS, before point and click was mastered.
Mainframe/Mini computer Operating Systems still used CLI for admin. GUI was for user terminals and standalone PC's.
I still have notebooks containing CLI admin scripts for key tasks for different mini-computer operating systems in the field. I now also have a notebook for Linux terminal commands that I use on occasions.
The steamdeck I think will change everything so far people who have the steam deck are loving it when connected as a PC and they are loving the KDE OS, now that Nvidia have announced that they are going to start working much closer with the Linux kernal "I think because of the steam deck" onwards and upwards for Linux.