Even as an occasional Ubuntu user, it's already an effort for even some desktop developers to use GNU/Linux given that Windows and macOS are actually being sane desktops just to get work done. I just can't see any user wanting to use or switch to either Linux or BSD to sanely 'use' their computer for being productive in their daily work other than programming in vim or emacs; because they are still desktops for programmers.
The BSDs now have the same Linux desktop argument of having 'choice' which has made it a blessing for its tinkerers and a curse for commercial desktop app developers as highlighted in [2]. You have 3 ways to package an app, many desktop environment choices like GNOME, KDE, Xfce and the windowing managers like X11, Wayland to test for and you then ask why your favourite software application isn't on X Linux distro or X BSD distro. I won't be looking forward to testing or bug hunting for my GUI app on either system since their desktop stacks aren't integrated well or have a stable 'SDK' unlike with Windows and macOS. GNU/Linux and the BSDs are pretty much still fragmented ecosystems.
The BSDs in particular will always be behind, since the same developers who have always used Linux and were part of the FOSS community are the same ones that still contribute and pushed for it in their companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon, etc. Thus, some will only accept upstream patches for Windows, Mac and Linux. The BSDs will then be left in the sand with atrocious software support and their patches will be rejected as the maintainers will be unwilling to upstream these patches due to this.
> I just can't see any user wanting to use or switch to either Linux or BSD to sanely 'use' their computer for being productive in their daily work other than programming in vim or emacs; because they are still desktops for programmers.
Do you mean for native Windows or macOs dev? Then I agree. However if you are a non tech user I don't agree. I know many people (friends and family), who use Linux on their Notebook or PCs (quite frankly most non-tech users use mobile anyway) and they have no I idea what emacs or vim is (and why should they?).
So Linux being just for dev users is just not true, at least in my experience.
I use Ubuntu as my main os for programming. I run into a few kinks every now and then, and for that I keep around a Windows and a macOS box. I’d say that Ubuntu is a sane desktop to get work done in.
The BSDs now have the same Linux desktop argument of having 'choice' which has made it a blessing for its tinkerers and a curse for commercial desktop app developers as highlighted in [2]. You have 3 ways to package an app, many desktop environment choices like GNOME, KDE, Xfce and the windowing managers like X11, Wayland to test for and you then ask why your favourite software application isn't on X Linux distro or X BSD distro. I won't be looking forward to testing or bug hunting for my GUI app on either system since their desktop stacks aren't integrated well or have a stable 'SDK' unlike with Windows and macOS. GNU/Linux and the BSDs are pretty much still fragmented ecosystems.
The BSDs in particular will always be behind, since the same developers who have always used Linux and were part of the FOSS community are the same ones that still contribute and pushed for it in their companies like Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon, etc. Thus, some will only accept upstream patches for Windows, Mac and Linux. The BSDs will then be left in the sand with atrocious software support and their patches will be rejected as the maintainers will be unwilling to upstream these patches due to this.