My personal points:

- No need to care for drivers
- installing/uninstalling applications is easy and clean (sudo apt-get install firefox / sudo apt-get purge firefox)
- many features for working efficiently (Virtual Desktops, Ram drives, power of the command line)
- problems are there but the approach is very different for Windows and Linux,
On Windows I get a problem (Games keeps minimizing randomly) and hunt if for a long time.
(I finally pinned it down to the synaptics touchpad driver utility)
On Linux if I run into a problem I almost ever quickly determine the cause and in most cases I can solve it.
In cases I can't its usually solved over time (new driver, new version)

And mainly: Under Linux I have the feeling I control my system, under Windows I feel like I have to keep an eye on the system so it behaves (No, don't install that update which annoys me with Windows 10, is there an update icon on shutdown, do I need to update my PDF Reader because there is a security issue, why is there a Intel management engine service running ...)

I still use Windows, in the last years for gaming and for image editing, now gimp/darkroom and others are so good and usable, Its just there for gaming.

Sure. Or Gentoo. That way it's certain they're going to go back to Windows.
Don't get me wrong. I love Arch. AND Gentoo. But you have to know what you're doing.
Mint is the best way for a newcomer to go.

Jokes aside, recommending Arch to someone new to Linux is a surefire way to turn them away from it. ;)

I totally ninja'd you.

Joke answer: Or puppy linux

real answer: Ubuntu's pretty good too, I started with it though dabbled with puppy a little.

If you have a lot of free time you don't mind spending to learn a new OS and you don't get frustrated easily. Try Linux.
Why Windows (pre-10)? Because it works, is user-friendlier than Linux, most software (and hardware) works on it and when you do require assistance you don't have to communicate with Linux users that feel they're superior to everyone else.

I really disagree with that one. Maybe a long time ago, it was so. These days, Linux is much, much easier to use and maintain than Windows.

And the Arch Wiki has an exceptionally good installation guide (which I unfortunately still need to consult despite installing the system on several machines - some even twice or thrice). Although, I would not recommend it to those who are not in the least interested in learning the system and just want the OS to start their games and a web browser. Ubuntu and Mint are still Linux though, so it's all good.

And I don't know anyone on here who's helped me that felt superior, or even gave me that kind of vibe.

I really disagree with that one.
It's much better than it was in the old days, but it's still not easier to use and maintain.

Im just saying. if they like the challenge.

Any linux distro is good actually.

Here take your pick . http://distrowatch.com/
True that.
Hah yeah. I was learning from Arch Wiki too... after years been spoilt by Deb.

The getting advertised to thing dives me nuts. I need to have access to the Edge browser, and let my laptop upgrade from 8.1. I haven't had Win10 interrupt a game but I have had other things close a game I was playing to let me know about something that could have waited. It sucks.

The fact that the OS is now allowing it's notification system be used as an advertising platform is disgusting. I hope MS never sells that option out to 3rd parties, but the fact that they are doing it themselves is really gross all by itself.

The update thing really got me good a couple of days after Christmas. I made my dad a website of sorts and was going to start putting it up 24 hours before I had a flight out. I stepped away from my computer for 60 seconds and when I got back it was updating. It didn't stop updating for hours. At one point it started back up, said it had updated, and started going through some text slide shows that were talking forever. I didn't know it was still updating and thought it got stuck. While pressing keys I accidentally hit the power button and restarted it, which it later told me not to do. I thought I broke it when it started and was doing weird stuff. After a reboot it was OK. I lost a half-day doing an update I wasn't ready for. Had I needed to catch my flight at that time I don't know what would have happened to the laptop. I've always hated auto updates, always thought they were wicket inconvenient for a laptop, and now you can't do anything more than suggest to it when you want it done.

For the record, my DT PC is a Win7/Linux Mint dual boot system. Has been for a long time.

It is ages since I used Linux, was on Amiga 1200.
Why does Linux not need defragmenting?

I've had another one, though related to "this is not available for Linux (yet)" it's not the eact same - "this developer obviously only used their dev environment's "compile Linux version" function and didn't bother testing that it actually launches and doesn't crash".

It's happened with a few games that advertise Linux/SteamOS support on Steam.