> All the already pleasant Linux desktop needs is the kind of hardware ecosystem polish Jobs’ era Apple used to become relevant again.
I keep hearing this, over and over again. But I plug in my Magic Trackpad to my GNOME desktop and it works fine. My MX Master 3 works great, and avoids the gesture emulation mode that makes it feel sluggish on Mac. My Nvidia hardware has better driver support on Linux than anywhere else, my Android handset integrates with the desktop better than it ever did on Windows or Mac, my XM4s support the LDAC codec that my iPad and Macbook won't. My old Thinkpad still gets frequent updates and supports all the same software it had at launch.
What people really want is brand identity - I get it. It's fun to play as part of the "in-group" fighting against some well-defined evil like Microsoft. That was part of Apple's marketing from the start, there's no need to hide their light under a technical bushel. But Linux simply isn't that, it's never been about the snide remarks or assumption-reaffirming "I'm a Linux" TV commercials. Linux is simply an open software project, warts and all. There isn't any hardware you can buy (or I would argue, even any hardware you can make) to fix those issues. Switching to Linux a psychological roadblock, even if you consider MacOS to be functionally superior desktop OS.
The situation for OSes today is absolutely pitiful, so I understand where the author is coming from here. But they seem to be going through the final stage of accepting that all computers suck, and you can only choose the least-bad option. We should only be so lucky to live in a world where the Linux desktop isn't confined to platforms with hardware polish. We'd need a new Linux if you Mac pundits ended up writing all the rules for us.
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