I think it’s both an issue if hardware support and being the little guy.
If Linux wants to be bigger it needs to change it’s selling point. People have been conditioned to think of free software as bloated ad-fests by their phones. My wife was asking how I liked Linux and I could only describe apps as the early Android app store where everything was free and generally great.
Calling out Windows for privacy issues doesn’t have too much sway. Mostly because the damage is done, people have posted on Facebook and agreed to every tracker, what’s one more? Calling out Windows for being slower, showing you ads all the time and taking away features might have more traction.
People under the age of 25 tend to be really bad at the Internet. The number of times high schoolers or college kids are mystified by how I’m able to get information quickly from search engines is beyond me.
I’m not surprised they can’t tell what’s real, they can’t search for tiny details like “transmission time to Mars” or “gravity on mercury”.