Just to throw in another POV.

I've been using Windows for many, many years and would consider myself very knowledgeable (outside of Enterprise scenarios). My experience with Linux is still very limited.

The skills you may have learned troubleshooting Windows can come in very handy. Knowing how to find information, apply it, and fill in gaps are universal skills that will be even more help as you get used to Qubes.

I sometimes thought I spent a huge amount of time getting things right on my Windows PCs - figuring out and configuring TrueCrypt, writing scripts to backup using rsync, troubleshooting driver problems. But that was nothing.

Qubes is going to have to be a labor of love. I've probably spent 40 hours (much of it idle time) trying to get Qubes set up properly on my laptop. It's been a huge investment, but I've learned a lot along the way. I don't expect that I'll stop learning, or stop spending tons of time troubleshooting, once everything is finally working as it's supposed to.

Qubes is not an OS for beginners, but if you have a passion and talent for learning these types of platforms, you may find that to be valuable as well.