Sure, we have LibreOffice, GIMP, Inkscape, Scribus. What I dislike is the lack of high-quality productivity software (and since when are e-mail clients and calendaring apps not productivity software?). Better profiling ( perf), better observability (eBPF, yes there is DTrace, but the eBPF ecosystem is so much more exiting), better customizability, better development tools, better package managers, native containers, etc.

What I like about the Linux desktop is that it is so much beter for the power user. After a short adventure with the M1 MacBook Air, I decided that the Mac ecosystem is definitely on a trajectory that I don’t like anymore, and returned the M1 Mac and sold my last Intel Mac. The last few years I have slowly been moving back to Linux as my main desktop. In 2007 I switched to macOS as my main desktop OS. I used Linux as my main desktop from 1994 to 2007. Linux productivity software is fine, but there are rough edges for the power user But for others, the calculus is different. No amount of polish and convenience is really worth it to me. If I can get a machine that runs Linux, even in a fairly hobbled way, I’m going to take it over other options where I don’t know whether my machine is going to just not let me use it one day (literally happened to my ex with Windows Vista) or whether it’s going to send information about what software I’m running on it to headquarters, etc. I don’t mean to rub anyone the wrong way and I’m not preaching, but the last bullet point is the one that matters the most to me and I suspect it always will be the most important for me, personally. The only option that is (mostly) free software, where you actually own and control your own machine.

Counter to the above point, there are a TON of UX choices, which is neat.

All desktop environments are full of papercuts/bugs.

Apple really talks a good talk on privacy and such.

The unixy stuff is more “built in” than WSL on Windows.

A lot of people really like the design (UX and aesthetic).

Maximum software availability/compatibility.

Scribus mac m1