I try desktop Linux every year and honestly, Gnome 40 is getting close, but Linux has a long way to go on the desktop before it rivals MacOS or Windows in terms of cohesive user experience.
This is an unpopular opinion in the FOS world but; I know I can donate, but I would love for there to be a high end desktop linux project that had a paid license.
It was actively maintained, adequately staffed and produced a user-centric distribution that could rival the high quality user experience you see in MacOS.
I tried to learn how to write a desktop environment a while ago and I am nowhere near smart enough for that.
I just want there to be an alternative to Windows and MacOS that is actually nice to live in on a daily basis.
I don't know about MacOS, but I do feel Windows is far from cohesive. The jump from GTK to Qt is no more than the jump from an older native Windows application to something in UWP for example.
Windows has been on the user experience decline for some time now. Rather than looking for ways to improve the user experience, they are looking for creative ways to introduce Microsoft Teams. Windows 7, while aged (and possibly viewed through nostalgia), was a pretty amazing cohesive experience.
There is literally nothing I do now that Windows 10 does better than Windows 7 (other than the actual requirement for software support). Not only does 10 take longer to start-up, but the start menu was destroyed and the new Microsoft Store app design (UWP?) is hideous and unintuitive.
I tolerate Windows now because of software support. I have nowhere else to play my games and don't even think about VR on a non-windows platform.
MacOS is certainly a better example of cohesive design (with some caveats, like their Window management is from the 90s).
I would love to see a Linux desktop environment take the best things from MacOS and the best things from Windows. Gnome 40 is _really_ close and that makes me very happy
Got to agree about Windows 7, it was absolutely great.
GNOME 40 is pretty good, and I think KDE gets better every day, although they do have a lot of cruft still, inconsistencies even within their own app suite.
I for one use KDE and it suits me perfectly. I think it is matter of preference only. For example I don't like MacOS UI that much. Some ideas are awesome there others not that much. Life is not black and white, nothing can be 100% perfect.
zorin is looking nice these days. ive been using pop os for maybe 2 years now but i think i might switch.
im not quite sure zorin counts as being "adequately staffed" though. as far as i know its just 2 brothers from Ireland working in it all this time, but maybe they have more staff these days. i can't imagine how they could pull off zorin os and also zorin grid with only two of them
This is an unpopular opinion in the FOS world but; I know I can donate, but I would love for there to be a high end desktop linux project that had a paid license.
It was actively maintained, adequately staffed and produced a user-centric distribution that could rival the high quality user experience you see in MacOS.
I tried to learn how to write a desktop environment a while ago and I am nowhere near smart enough for that.
I just want there to be an alternative to Windows and MacOS that is actually nice to live in on a daily basis.