This is true to an extent, but on the other hand it means people aren't forced to use a UI they loathe & find gets in the way of what they want to do (I personally can't stand Ubuntu's Unity UI and if that was my only choice I'd not use Linux).

Plus Microsoft are far from perfect in this regard - they've always made arbitrary and often seemingly pointless changes to their UI between versions, the most egregious being the travesty of a UI they tried forcing on everyone with Win8.x... that was actually one of the things that pushed me over to Linux :)

Support for some hardware is a big issue, especially things like wifi cards, but it's not the fault of Linux or its developers. Some hardware manufacturers don't yet provide Linux drivers nor do they provide specifications to allow community developers to more easily write them, so they're forced to reverse-engineer Windows drivers, with mixed results. It's an issue that'll take time to resolve (and more users to give them more incentive to support Linux), but fortunately things are fast improving in that regard as Linux marketshare grows.

Also, my mother uses Mint on her laptop and she's not very computer literate at all, but she very rarely encounters any real problems with it.

Which is why Ubuntu/Mint/etc. are ideal choices for the average user and are the de-facto "standard distro" for general desktop use.

I'm using Debian testing and Firefox build from Mozilla. Never had a problem with that. No one stops you from installing Firefox not from the repo.

Uhhh... this suggestion sounds really familiar for some reason... I realize this example is anecdotal, but in my own personal experience I've found that those with no previous computer experience have a much easier time learning to use Linux Mint or Ubuntu than those who use Windows regularly, but aren't exactly technically knowledgeable (independent of Windows) computer power users. In other words it tends to be easier for those who don't have to unlearn "Windows Habits"...

I don't know how it compares with other distros but in my personal experience it's very good. I started using Linux when Mint 17.1 came out and later upgraded to Mint 17.3 (Mate Desktop). The 64bit version also comes with 32bit library support out of the box, which to me it has been a big help when running 32bit games.

As for PulseAudio - I think that's what I'm using for the past 2 years, haven't had any problems with it in any game or other software.

For me it has been smooth sailing, so far I don't feel the need to upgrade since everything works fine. 2017 however should be looking good for Linux, so I may reconsider for Mint 19.

For me PulseAudio was painless with all cards I had and have, including 3.3v SB Live! after asound-plugins was properly updated around (2010)

There are about three caveats:
- if your CPU power is low, apply worser filter.
- if application sound always maximizes hardware sound, set FLAT VOLUMES to NO. If you still want caged max volume, limit the system info volume in your desktop settings to desired volume.
- if you have old OSS applications, install osspd.