> I've been amazed for years at how inferior the process of setting up a new Windows machine is to Linux, especially after hearing for years about how Linux supposedly was difficult compared to windows.

That's because it is. Windows: do nothing, it's already installed. Linux: you have to install.

People compare what they have to do to get Windows on a new machine, which almost always (unless it's an Apple) already has it installed, with what they have to do to get Linux on a new machine, which almost always requires it to be installed. Even the simplest installer will be more difficult than "nothing".

If computers didn't come with any preinstalled operating system, the general opinion would be different.

(That said, most of the "Linux is difficult to install" sentiment is probably either based on outdated information from the time when you had to manually configure everything, or someone who had difficulties because of unsupported or poorly supported hardware.)

Sure, I agree with that. People who believed Linux was difficult to install rarely tried the same process with a Windows CD. Back in the day, I had plenty of mysterious, unsolvable issues like reboot loops trying to install Windows 2000 and 98.

I'm more thinking about setting up a new system. Whether it's Windows or Linux, I need to obtain things like an FTP program, a photo editor, a torrent manager, firefox, and so forth. It's a lot easier on Debian than Windows because you can get all of those in 5 minutes from the command line.

I just did this on my new Zenbook and it was extremely easy install.

Though I was installing from an MSDN install DVD which isn't something everybody would have on hand.