That said, I'm not gonna pretend that Linux is some utopia and everything works immediately. But there's no way it's worse. I have a script that takes any machine from a formatted drive to a working OS exactly how I need it, unattended, in about 20 minutes. That's extreme, but everyone at least has a list of the packages they need that they can copy paste install into the terminal as soon as the installer is done.
I think the biggest thing I can point to is how well Apple products work for the average person. I buy new ones every 2~3 years and keep N-1 as a spare. N-2 goes to someone who has asked me too many PC support questions.
Everyone I've given an apple laptop has eventually bought a new one. They bitched about the price, but they were ultimately willing to pay for it. My dad worked for IBM for many years and was not happy I "wasted money" on my first mac in college. Ten years later after him still saying that, I gave him a laptop. That was a few years ago and last month he bought a new M1 Air. Meanwhile, a number of the people he works with have converted to Apple laptops because they've seen how well his works.
But, you can also just copy your home directory on Linux for the same kinda process.
I kinda lost the thread at this point, but I was just trying to make the point the Macs aren't magically usable out of the box, at least for power users.
This is exactly the reason for the feeling of empowerment I got when I moved to FreeBSD/KDE after Mac. I didn't realise just how closed down macOS had gotten over time. This was the number one reason for my move but the extent of it still surprised me. Everything I want differently now is just easy, documented and usually even has a GUI button ready for the clicking. Whereas in macOS it's just "this is how it works, get used to it" now.
Apple is working so hard to lock the underpinnings of the OS down now and even if you can still change things to work your way you have to jump through so many hoops it becomes really annoying. And as well as that whatever option you used to get there is bound to get changed or removed without notice.
I just realized I'm not happy just going along with other people's choices. I hate 'going with the flow'. I recognise any the specific annoyances you mentioned in your post higher up in the thread.
The fact that Brew's package selection is one of the most complete that exists (I think Arch's and Gentoo's get fairly close, maybe with a few not-enabled-by-default ones added in?), is one of the main reasons I like it so much.
That only works well if macOS is in fact exactly how you like things. Because it's a lot less configurable than KDE and the whole source code thing is not an option at all :)
I agree, if you want a Mac then don't try to make Linux like one because you'll never get close enough.
You partition your computer to just try the new version as well? Pretty handy.
That's a high bar to clear. One thing that Apple does that makes a lot of sense is that they own the hardware and the software. Hackintoshes are a good indication of how things would look like if they had to support more hardware than they do.
This is one of the reasons why I have recommended Macs for the less tech savvy members of my family. Just works, great manufacturer support (noone really comes close), has things like Time Machine to keep backups running. My "support calls" dropped drastically.
My mother had a Linux netbook(remember those?) for banking purposes but a Mac for general usage. She would be able to browse on Linux, but things would get messy the moment she would want to, say, use her cricut machine.
Let's compare with Windows? That truly takes a whole lot of time, specially because the OS seems to "rot" over time. It's become less of an issue (possibly also because our hardware is so powerful). My Windows desktop has taken way more work to maintain than my Linux machines(plural) + Macs. I have to keep that for VR, Fusion360 (going to ditch that as soon as I can) and the odd game that doesn't work properly (Sea of Thieves in-game chat?). Can't wait to get rid of it and use only Linux - which takes hardly any "maintenance" at all (other than installing updates and even that is just a click).
It’s an ideological bar though. Pick a line or models of laptops and officially support that specific line. Keep the list smallish and from popular manufacturers. Everything else deals with it they way we do now.
Linux on supported hardware is pretty low maintenance. But it’s still not quite as nice as MacOS. And god forbid you get the latest hardware.
Not everything in the world needs to be configurable to be good. Yes, when moving from Windows to Mac, people miss stuff that could be configured. When moving from Mac to Windows, from Mac to Linux etc, it is always the same story.
But people often miss the point that being configurable does not always means making it better necessarily. Part of configuration is to allow people to work differently, and that is good. But configuration to make it work like the competition (make Mac work like windows, or Mac work like linux) is beyond what configuration should be able to do anyway. Otherwise you end up with no consistency and a bad compromise.
Even with Macs trying to offer a consistent experience, Mac apps can often behave differently. Back in the day when I used Linux I felt like many apps I needed to learn how they dealt with the most basic things like the menu locations, like window management, preferences/settings/configuration etc. Too much configuration is not healthy all the time. And Linux culture of "configure all the things" might be hurting Linux adoption itself.
Consider Microsoft complement destroying usability in Windows 8 just because they wanted to sell more tablets. Apple trying to lock you in ever deeper into their walled garden.
Note, I said "turn off", which the "Reduce Motion" setting does not do.
Also, how do you get a 4k monitor to run at 144Hz on an Intel Mac?
The first one is simply impossible to do on Monterey.
The 4k 144 thing is a software regression (so not a hardware limitation) that still hasn't been fixed: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253168625
120-144Hz is a lot nicer though. All animations, scrolling, even just moving the pointer, look and feel smoother and snappier.
I've not used it in about a year now and I do miss it. They were adding support for a tiling WM mode and it wasn't bad (needed some work).
I was using it on System76 hardware and had zero issues with the OS and S76 replaced my keyboard when it went bad.
Granted, that's a far cry from touchpad configs--but if you keep your dotfiles in git then touchpad config is something you only have to once (per touchpad that you own).
I love Linux, it’s been my OS since Vista came out and I switched to SUSE Community Edition, but we get so used to our OSs we forget part of the ease of use is being familiar. When I problem pops up on Ubuntu I can solve it within a minute. When one pops up on Mac it takes me some googling (and I give up on windows.) None if these systems are all the easy (or difficult) to use, it’s just a few basic concepts and then a ton of time figuring stuff out.