This article brought back memories. I remember struggling with various versions of Linux but when Ubuntu hit the scene it was a game changer. They had the first forums that were actually approachable for noobs. For the first time you got helpful, encouraging responses from people.
Back then it wasn incredibly common to get told to fuck off or read the manual, derided, talked down to, and generally treated like shit for asking questions or not knowing something. There was tons of gatekeeping.
So when the article says they cared about the whole user experience they left out one of the best parts: the support forums!