It's kind of a straw-man argument as no one is forcing anyone to use Linux. But using cross platform FOSS to avoid lock-in IS a good idea, and it does make transitioning to Linux easier (or indeed many other OSs - FOSS or not).

But Linux's success on the desktop has been organic. It's a combination of platform maturity, ease of use, the breaking of windows USP in gaming, privacy and data concerns, and on the other side the enshitification of Windows, and even MacOS. The only "forcing" is arguably Microsoft & Apple pushing it's users away from their own platforms by their behaviour.

No one can force you to use Linux

I'm not forcing anyone to do anything. I just look down on them for using Windows. And you can't stop me!

This is what I'm hoping Europe's transition into FOSS will do for the ecosystem. If they can make a polished sovereign software stack with a well known offramp, what exactly is the value of Microsoft? Why pay that much? Especially as all of their products get worse and enshittify further.

But... But... But, then how they will now I use Arch? ～(つˆ0ˆ)つ｡☆

This often doesn't work very well as people will blame Windows/MacOS issues on the less well integrated FOSS apps and in general the Windows versions are also often more buggy as the developers spend little to no time using Windows themselves (because who would voluntarily use that crap?).

Yeah, the all or nothing approach will not make Linux mainstream. Meet people where they are.

Who's forcing anyone to use Linux?

Proton for windows when?

would actually help with old games compatibility.

If you want universal uptake, you need to be in the schools.

I’m forced to use CoPilot at work and chuckled when the running dialog showing my prompt was being delivered showed LibreOffice being used for initial file generation.

This is what I've been doing, most of my software whether for work or personal has a Linux version, however I'm still stuck with Adobe for now for PS+LR and can't really be bothered with dual booting. As soon as I manage to replace those in a way that works for me professionally, I'm hopping over.

I don't know why, but I've gotten more resistance for suggesting that than Linux. Switched my wife to Linux no problem, another girl I know was like "do you really think it will run on my laptop with a Celeron? I will look into it." IT people I work with are like "yeah Microsoft sucks but I'm not ready".

People get REALLY comfortable with their shitty proprietary apps though, even tech literate people. I'm not even including stuff like Adobe which are great and people have spent years using processionally. I mean like Signal, which is functionally the same as any other messaging app and takes two seconds to get up and running.

cross platform meaning FOSS OS (BSDs, linux, androids)

though it's often easy to make it support proprietary OS with little-to-no dev time, and the idea of spreading FOSS to those trapped in proprietary OSes is good too

Eh just jump right in. You’ll most likely float, it’s been a neat experience for me thus far: having /var/cache file for updates filled up bc of updates, unable to login with my working password to my profile, Luks not working at all - these are great ways to learn how to evolve the hard way. I throughly enjoy what’s next for me in my Linux environment!