Or, to put it differently, of my simplified boxes for basic users, Linux generates the fewest trouble tickets.
Interestingly, I keep reading these claims online but every time I try it turns out to be exactly the other way around. Maybe I'm haunted by the Linux ghosts, but even though I love running Linux on servers, Linux on laptops has always been a complete disaster for me.
It runs hot, drains the battery, and updates ruin the entire installation with alarming frequency. It's not even remotely as stable as Windows or Mac (or Android, which is particularly interesting since it is Linux as well).
I've spent weeks investigating power management issues on Linux laptops down to individual drivers. I don't recommend the experience to anyone.
As with everything in IT, YMMV.
How does your anecdote fit into that, apart from "it both says Linux, so a single user desktop and a MySQL server is totally the same situation"?
My anecdote simply states that nothing is perfect and things do go wrong.
A more pertinent question is: is that less problematic as far as you are concerned or as far as the users are concerned? Also are you fully sure that you are qualified to judge this as a success based on the metrics you set out? Perhaps things take them ten times longer but they are ignorant to that fact?