I still think they just want it to work. Of course Windows doesn't always just work, nor does Linux or MacOS. Feces occur. But familiarity makes fixing things easier when they don't work as designed. If you've seen the same borkage many times, it's not so difficult to handle it. But something you've never seen is more difficult, and most Windows users have never seen a Linux desktop, so even normal things can seem broken. There are people who will just not tolerate anything different from what they're used to. Learning isn't fun or interesting to them, they just want what they're used to.
That is basically my point, though. When people say “I just want it to work,” what they usually mean is “I want it to work in the way I already understand.”
That is the real difference.
Most Windows users are not coming to Linux with an empty head. They are coming with years of habit, muscle memory, expectations, and a mental map built around Windows logic. So when something goes wrong in Windows, even if it is a mess, it still feels like known territory. They have seen similar weirdness before. They know where the Settings app is, where Device Manager is, what an .exe is, what a C: drive is, what “restart the PC” means in that environment. Even the problems feel familiar.
On Linux, that same person is suddenly dealing with two things at once: the actual problem, and an unfamiliar system. That is what makes it feel worse. The friction is not always greater in absolute terms, but mentally it feels greater because they do not yet have a map in their head for where things are or how the system thinks. That is why even normal Linux behavior can look broken to a Windows user. It is outside their learned pattern.
So I still think “they just want it to work” is too vague. Psychologically, people do not just want functionality. They want familiarity, predictability, and low mental effort. They want the system to behave in ways that match what their brain already expects. That is why they often tolerate a huge amount of nonsense on Windows without questioning it, while much smaller differences on Linux feel unacceptable. Windows gets forgiven because it is familiar. Linux gets judged harder because it is unfamiliar.
That is also why so many people say they want to try something different, but what they actually want is a near-perfect Windows clone without the parts they dislike. They do not really want a different operating system in the deeper sense. They want the same learned behavior, same software assumptions, same workflow, same logic, just with fewer problems. And once they realise Linux is its own thing and expects some relearning, that is where many back out.
So yes, I agree familiarity is a huge part of it. I just think that once you strip the wording down, “I want it to work” usually means “I want it to feel familiar enough that I do not have to rebuild my habits from scratch.”
