I do, of course, know that there are many DEs and window managers. I generalize them quite purposefully. The point I'm trying to make is that on Linux, there ar

I do, of course, know that there are many DEs and window managers. I generalize them quite purposefully. The point I'm trying to make is that on Linux, there are hardly any well-defined standards for anything beyond system calls. There also are no UI guidelines and there's no single accepted UI toolkit (some apps use Qt, some apps use GTK, some use something else). This leads to overall subpar user experience. Many apps have UIs that make you think before you do something with it. A good UI doesn't make you think, it feels like a continuation of your thoughts right when you see it for the first time. Consistency helps a lot here. (FWIW, the way GUI apps feel and behave doesn't depend much on your choice of desktop environment.) I don't like walled gardens — I despise Apple's service ecosystem and the app store. I just prefer things to work sensibly out of the box. The only reason I made an Apple ID is because it won't let me download Xcode without one.