Too geeky?
Linux mint is one of the easiest distros for a windows user, I dont know what you were trying to do on it that made you think as a whole its "too geeky"
Really there is nothing hard here, sure some things are different but thats bound to happen when looking at another OS.
The only time command line comes into play in linux is that it is easier to type out command line prompts then tell someone, click on this, click on that, next, next, next, I agree,next, next.
Or installing some drivers.
What did you do in your experiment?