You just gave four options and an “etc.” and dude that’s not going to make anyone any more comfortable. If people don’t have friends who can help them, and a lot of people don’t, then how are they supposed to even know to ask for Linux, the set of OSs which have a reputation for being finnicky? They’re just supposed to grab a USB stick and learn what ISOs are, jump in the BIOS and mess with boot orders, and- do you not see the problem?

I agree that people should learn this shit. I’m not in IT but I deal with my computer myself, or a mechanic but I fix my own car, or a plumber but I have no problems dealing with certain issues here but a lot of people aren’t like that and are in fact actively discouraged from cracking into their electronics or their cars or their homes. It sucks, but you gotta deal with that before naming off distros when they don’t even know what a distro even is.