Linux to me still feels like it used to be in the 90s. It's certainly improved, and package management is better, but the UI's are inconsistent and of relatively low quality. The advantage would be that you have more of a one-to-one match with what happens on the server side (which is usually Linux for most people).
Some parts might require some tweaks, but usually it's a once off and then you're good to go. Containers - haven't had much issues, but you might run into some non-ARM based images for Docker, but fairly easily solved.
As for window management - what do you mean? The window management to me is good, but then I never understood tiling window managers and such, if that is your requirement.
I've recently spent a considerable amount of time on Windows 11(after using linux/x11/wayland/kde for a long time),-- the UI inconsistencies are widespread there too. Microsoft is only finally finishing the push to make all control panels look consistent, and they are doing so by removing some of the more detailed options.
I was there and the wiki article captures the look, but not the feel. Giant funky mouse pointers that flip which direction they point as you hover over elements, but without apparent logic...Window maximizing behavior that left you unable to get back to the desktop...Minimized windows disappearing, never to be seen again...
Yeah. Linux got left in the dust in about 2005 and no one has worked it out yet.
The principal difference is the sheer quality of the client desktop experience hasn't improved since then. The Linux desktop apps are pretty terrible, unreliable and clunky and most of the progress so far has been rewriting them again and again in slightly different desktops to no avail (gnome over the years for example). Yet still things like fractional scaling barely even work.
While everyone was pissing around with that and fanfaring open source, Apple refined a whole suite of apps that ship with their macs and phones and ipads that just work and sync properly.
And that's what is important to a lot of people, not whether the icons are in the title bar on gnome, any purity etc. Usability is number 1. And Linux is not.
Err we have virtual desktops, tiling, snapping and things you know, out of the box these days. I mean the virtual desktops thing is mostly what I use and it's a triple swipe on my magic trackpad to switch.
And MacOS had Spaces 6 years before Windows had anything similar and Exposé for 3 years before they came out with a crappy not-as-good equivalent, and the current task view still sucks by comparison.
But touch input drivers on both platforms still suck, so I don't really care what their Window management is like when I can't interact with them without a hand cramp.
I'm not sure why the need to move the goalposts but I'll bite.
>And MacOS had Spaces 6 years before Windows had anything similar and Exposé for 3 years before they came out with a crappy not-as-good equivalent, and the current task view still sucks by comparison
So what? On Windows and Linux I never needed that feature because they always had proper window management, nor do I use that feature now. You're comparing Apples to Oranges. A Dodge RAM has a tow hitch, a Ferrari doesn't have a tow hitch. Is one better than the other, or are they better at different scenarios?
>But touch input drivers on both platforms still suck, so I don't really care what their Window management is like when I can't interact with them without a hand cramp.
All touchpads give me cramps and carpal tunnel, that's why I use an angled mouse. Again, moot and off topic point. What's the point of a better touchpad if it's never gonna beat an ergonomic mouse?
Half-screen tiling (Window > Tile Window to Left/Right of Screen, or click and hold the green button), snapping (same but hold Opt), and virtual desktops ("Spaces", later "Mission Control") have been been available for a long time. The former ones maybe not used that much because people don't explore the menus.
Some parts might require some tweaks, but usually it's a once off and then you're good to go. Containers - haven't had much issues, but you might run into some non-ARM based images for Docker, but fairly easily solved.
As for window management - what do you mean? The window management to me is good, but then I never understood tiling window managers and such, if that is your requirement.