> I follow a lot of high-profile researchers at places like Nvidia, and they often discuss the desire to replace their Mac for dev purposes but have not found a quality alternative.
How ironic: Linux would be a lot more well-positioned for desktop use if Nvidia would open-source its proprietary drivers.
Frankly, though, I find Linux eminently usable and preferable to macOS or Windows.
That's absolutely fine and good for you, but the plain fact is for the vast majority of people, including most developers, that's not the case.
Having a single consistent desktop with a ton of financial resources behind it, and a commercial desktop software market also built using huge financial resources, makes a big difference. Financing is also why Linux kills it on the server. Redhat, IBM and many more have sunk $billion(s) into Linux as a server OS and it shows, but that level of investment has never happened for the Linux desktop.
I think the closest equivalent is Canonical. Canonical spent a lot of money on Desktop Linux, and to be honest, you can see the impact. Desktop Linux today is far more usable than it ever was, and the millions spent by Canonical are a large part of that.
Unfortunately, Canonical appears to have scaled back their desktop spending, so it remains to be seen if someone else will step in. Maybe the System76 or Purism folks, or maybe Canonical will focus on Ubuntu desktop again, especially with Shuttleworth’s recent comments that he has been surprised with the number of large organizations requesrion Linux laptops, esp for their data science teams, etc.
How ironic: Linux would be a lot more well-positioned for desktop use if Nvidia would open-source its proprietary drivers.
Frankly, though, I find Linux eminently usable and preferable to macOS or Windows.