I think now would be a good time to point out that linux is not an os, its a kernel. GNU is the os.

Linux as an alternative family of OSes is dying and almost dead. Linux as a shiny and works "out-of-the-box" corporate OS that competes with Microsoft and Apple has been born and is currently teething.
That would make sense if you were using a system that required the user to do everything, but ...
It is interesting that you have problems on beginner distributions designed for Windows users who only know how to point-and-click and on rock-solid stable systems like CentOS. Without any details of your situation, the only question that comes to my mind is what the hell were trying to do?

... and so has the teenage arrogant attitude!

that said, the main reason for me is that linux enabled me to use machines discarded by others, because they're "too slow, too old".
i have never bought a new piece of hardware, thanks to linux, and i'm proud of it!

... that and customisation, which has grown into some sort of hacking/scripting/coding hobby... plus the whole personal security/privacy thing. but these aspects only came along after the first one.

My "old Dobbin" ... *sniff!* "but its disk-drive lives on ..." ... was originally sold with Windows-95, and even with that, it wasn't much. Or so it would seem ...

Until I discovered Gentoo and somewhat-painfully taught myself to build a Linux that was specifically tailored for its hardware. The machine started from-cold in about ten seconds, and it felt positively speedy.

I felt much the same way, a long time ago, when I first encountered an IBM mainframe compatible box ... an Amdahl system ... that was running their UTS Unix natively instead of IBM's clunky MVS (nee "Z/OS"). It was unbelievably fast, as such a machine of course should be, when those tons of cruft were lifted off of it. Positively a pleasure to work with.

Which linux do you run? There are so many now. Some OSs are more mature than others. Depending, of course, on what you mean by mature.