Fed up with the Mac, I spent six months with a Linux laptop

Why then, is brew still considerably worse than apt, and Finder worse than...anything on Linux? You don't need the source code to replicate functionality. Additionally, some tools are better adapted to the philosophy of their 'native' desktops,so they have a challenge architecturaly and with the users mindsets/muscle-memory when ported across platforms.

This is all to say, I agree that it's pretty subjective: I'll take keyboard shortcuts over mouse gestures - so I won't "get" why Mac lovers emphasize trackpad performance so much, and I guess they won't "get" why I rave about system-wide shortcuts and configurability either. I use MacOs for work, but all my home computers run Linux. GNU core-utils are better than the BSD versions that ship on Macs - I will die on this hill

> migrating to Linux is fine, but don't expect a better experience than the Mac.

It seems that depends on what you do (and like). If you spend most of your time in Mail.app and previewing your files with Preview app and you like those apps, then perhaps Mac OS is a good choice for you.

I personally don't fall into those categories. I care more about the software development experience where Linux is a better option for me. In fact, I was a bit surprised that the blog post was from "Engineer, developer, entrepreneur" and there was no coverage of software engineering/development tools.

Here are things I prefer on Linux (not in any particular order): docker actually runs without taking over half to all of the system, window manager behaves the way I configure it, Kate works better, it's closer to what's in production - I don't need to run another docker container do/test simple things or fight with Mac OS workarounds, most tools/packages I use are a simple command away - Linux package managers are better and have a lot more packages than Homebrew, all/most installed packages get updates automatically, GUI file managers and file open dialogs are better than the Finder app, app menus belong to their windows, fonts aren't extra blurry on external monitors, most software stack is open source - if I find a bug I can troubleshoot or even try fixing it, etc., etc.

Things I liked better on a Mac: giant click anywhere touchpad (though tap-to-click feature was inadequate).

The problem as I see it is that even people who really are beginners sometimes want to reach for more advanced functionality, and different systems expose different advanced functions in a user-friendly way.

With a billion end-users this is really just noise. In any case this is a meaningless comparison. With Linux there is nowhere and nobody to even ask for this kind of support.

The answer is always some version of RTFM or fix it yourself.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/straw%20man

Being ‘immune from bugs’ is an obvious straw man.

> A Chromebook has fewer bugs and a better UX

If by ‘better UX’ you mean doesn’t even try to do things.

> Application menus are so far away from application windows that the Ever Given could do a goddamn u-turn between them with room to spare.

Have you considered why? There are good UX reasons for this. It uses less screen real estate, and leverages Fitt’s law because you don’t have to be accurate in the vertical dimension. It’s fine to have a preference for menus in windows. There are some arguments in favor of that, but you are just articulating a preference here.

Really your comment has nothing to do with whether MacOS *just works(, you have articulated a list of preferences and desires for it to work more like other things you have more familiarity with.

You just want it to work differently - I.e. you just don’t like it.

I increasingly don’t like it either for various reasons, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t just work.