Windows itself was installed during that time. Additional software installation took a few minutes. I installed stuff when I needed it thorough the day.
So nothing to really make Windows actually useful on reboot. In nearly the same amount of time with a Linux distro, you get a system that may well not need anything extra to be productive with on 1rst reboot.
(And yes, I have installed both OS systems from scratch dating back to dos).
I need to install all of my apps under Linux as well. Doesn’t make much of a difference. I don’t like the default browser, media player, torrent client, office suite, etc. that Mint ships with for example.
So it’s a matter of personal choices rather than one of necessity. To be honest I do the same with some of the software that Fedora installs, (I don’t need a suite like OpenOffice-- Abbiword and gnumeric are all I really need anymore), and some very specialized programs I use that most people have no need of. But none that has little to do with not having productive and usable software populating your first time boot.
I prefer starting with a netinstall and taking the time to choose the software I want rather than the kitchen sink distros. Or on Windows putting together one command to add what I want in a similar fashion, e.g. https://winstall.app/apps
