I disagree about how it used to be easy. And agree with everything else.
Ive used Windows since the 3.1 days (MSDOS as well?). Its never been “easy”. You just learn the magic spells on how to fix a printer, get the right drivers installed in JUST the right way, or which hardware magically doesn’t work for some reason and avoid it.
With Linux, at least we get good logs most of the time.
Love it