I have a _huge_ problem where if I can endlessly tweak something, I will waste hours doing so. I used to do the same with my Android devices, flashing newer nightly rom builds every night for cyanogen. My macOS/iOS devices "just work" and I have very few gripes with their chosen defaults.

Exactly this for me. Why spend hours tweaking something to look and work a certain way when all I am going to use it for is to launch some other program that I will likely run maximized?

Where did I blame the Desktop Environment? Nowhere did I state such, so please stop putting words in my mouth. I find the interoperability of my devices _great_ and I can't get that with Linux. I'd rather spend those hours tweaking servers, or projects, than some pointless (and typically subpar) Linux DE. I don't want to deal with that, as others have pointed out.

It's this thing you keep saying where endless tweaking is necessary. That is not true as I have stated multiple times. If you feel the need to constantly tweak things when you have the option to and can't help yourself that is purely a personal behaviour thing and nothing to do with any technology.

I only said this once, but I know I am not the only one. You asked, and you got an answer, on why people prefer systems where people get what they consider sane defaults. I have an endless curiosity, and if the way I need to deal with it is by making limiting decisions on purpose (while still getting a perfectly capable set of operating systems) then I will. Does my choice to limit what I know I have a weakness in mean I lack self control? I could still go after Linux and the endless dream if I wanted, but I chose not to?

An environment that encourages rabbit-holing is going to be an environment less preferred by people who don't want to rabbit-hole.

You can say that about KDE. You can also say that about "running Linux on a computer with a discrete graphics card".

I do it. (I'm posting this from a Thinkpad with a Quadro, running Fedora, and I have to uninstall a kernel module when I go traveling in order to disable it so I get more than two hours of battery life.) I chose to. Maybe you did too. That doesn't mean you need to Leap To Its Defense every time somebody says it's not for them.

> I have to uninstall a kernel module when I go traveling in order to disable it so I get more than two hours of battery life.)

Holy moly…more power to you for this, I read it with horror. I just close my MacBook lid and throw it in my bag. I hope you don’t have to travel much.

I don't love MacOS, but yeah, I bring an M1 Air with me when I travel on a plane. And my desktop runs Windows with WSL for work stuff.

Truth be told, the p52 doesn't run Linux as much anymore because it's a huge pain. Windows+WSL is good enough, and the primary reason I have a desktop replacement machine for my day job is for video processing.

Options beget choice. Choices need a decision, which requires energy. We can reframe what is called in german Innerer Schweinehund as our innate, hardwired wetware program to conserve energy. Lions and all other cats sleep most of the day, because hunting, which succeeds 1 out of 10 times, requires a lot of energy. We now live in an environment where food is abundant, no running after gazelles till think break down from overheating required. Now it becomes apparent why many people prefer convenience without thinking over choice.

That's nonsense. Having options doesn't mean you have to pick one. Having 1 choice or 10 with a default set is the same unless you start digging into options. This smells like "Apple Knows Best".

That's not true, for many people. If you increase choices then people often feel less happy.

Having more varieties of mayonnaise at the supermarket doesn't necessarily make us happier--it just forces us to expend energy choosing, or worrying that we've made the wrong choice. If there's just one variety then we don't have that issue and we're probably happy with the mayonnaise that we get.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Paradox_of_Choice

I don't use Apple products

Please read those: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

We want to have an open, respectful site, where we can discuss differing opinoons respectfully.

I’m both Mac OS X and Ubuntu user. There was no need to change anything in OSX because there was no need (defaults are good enough) and I use some tweaks on Ubuntu. I understand that this is anecdotal but I guess this is how OSX users feel.

>If you can use a computer to do basic tasks, it's really not hard. If you can't navigate some menus that have confusing titles like, desktop settings and themes and display options and widgets and you can't click and drag things around, whatever OS you use will be a struggle.

I did the Unix porn thing for years, it got old. Not a single bit of that sounds appealing at this point in my life.