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What account?

I'd mean people who don't know linux in particular but are marginally tech-savy.
Mint has been described as "the distro your granny can use" (and some do), but it does require some knowledge to at least install it — but it's nothing a tutorial somewhere won't help with, it's a low bar.

You're probably thinking of PairDrop (which also allows extranet).

You can OnionShare if you're worried about privacy.

Word of mouth has always been the best advertisement.

I prefer a dumb TV.

So you prefer Japanese spyware instead.

Linux Mint is one of the most recommended for newbies.
You can use a live CD/USB to try it out without installing.

RAM adequacy will depends on the language(s) and their toolchain, but coming from windows i don't foresee a CLI-inclined dev.
And/Or get a second-hand ThinkPad that doesn't have soldered RAM.

That’s what companies care for, that cannot afford a full IT employee or even department.

I doubt those companies can afford paid support from the likes of Cannonical and Red Hat - their licenses are solely for other at-scale companies to write off expenses and shift blame if something hits the fan.

My concern is the likelyhood that companies using MS products will cut corners by using deprecated/unsupported OSs for years after the last security patch, which will lead to security breaches for many consumers.

That likelihood is high, real and current.