Sometimes Linux might take more effort to set up (but in my experience it's quicker to install and set up [ed: than windows] on hardware that's a year or two old - since volunteers / third party developers usually do the work of supporting it, not the vendor). But once set up, Linux requires much less maintenance than windows. That's been true for years (and AFAIK that's also true for
BSDs).
[ed: part of the reason setup and maintenance of Linux is easier is thanks to powerful, integrated package management systems, like apt]