Installed Mint last week after a ~10 year hiatus from using Linux (other than Debian on RPi)

I was surprised at how everything just works, even my network HP all-in-one worked after a simple “search for printer” and it also added it as a scanner without any input from me. In windows I had to install HPsmart software, login every few days for some reason and then some days it just refuses to work altogether

I also connected it to my home theater and I was able to set up 5.1 sound without any additional installations. In windows it took me several hours to fix this and sometimes the link between the laptop and the HT would be cut for some reason in the middle of a movie and I had to restart everything