Linux can be configured to have much better security, even by someone knowing a little about computers due to its open-source nature. And it is especially true to my case, since i’m an IT student Can you change to a hardened kernel on Windows? I use Helios kernel even on my android, which is designed to be more secure than the stock one. And there are distros which come preconfigured for security. Not much skill is needed to have a secure Linux system. But you can be a highly proficient sysadmin on Windows, but you will still depend on a few thousand Microsoft employees to fix your system. On Linux, there are millions of people and various corporations are actively working to make it secure, and even you could, if you are really highly skilled. For someone who doesn’t know what a pendrive is, yes, Windows might be more secure than something like Ubuntu or any basic distro (and they propably can’t use anything more advanced and secure by design).

But it doesn’t take much skill to choose a highly secure linux distro, like Bazzite, Garuda, or even Qubes and use it, or maybe even harden your own. Android, which is also based on Linux is not secure by default, but in the hands of the right person, it can be a suprisingly secure system