> Plugging in a new display doesn't immediately work. A USB microphone fails to register as an input sound device.
I have these problems with the Dell laptop running Windows 10 which I use for work, but not with my own desktop or laptop running Fedora. So, my experience is more or less the opposite apparently. This makes it harder for me to buy the theory that there's something uniquely inferior about these Linux desktops.
When I switched from Linux to Macs for my daily drivers ten years ago, I was really shocked by how much stuff just works. But there's plenty of stuff that doesn't work, even on Mac. When I am struggling to get something working with one of my Macs, I often joke to myself that stuff like this is why Linux on the desktop will never be popular.
For example, my work laptop, a Macbook Pro, is always on my desk in my office. When I'm working, I have an external monitor plugged into it. If the laptop goes to sleep, then a bit later the monitor goes to sleep. But when the monitor goes to sleep, the laptop wakes up. Then a few minutes later the laptop goes to sleep and starts the cycle again. So every evening when I'm done working I have to unplug the laptop and manually put it to sleep. Then every once in a while (rarely, but multiple times this year) something else keeps waking the laptop up, or maybe I accidentally wake it up and don't manually put it to sleep again, who knows. When that happens, I have a dead Macbook Pro on my desk in the morning, and I say, "[Stuff] like this is why Linux on the desktop will never be popular.
I'm honestly a little disappointed at how smoothly everything works on my Linux machines. It ruins the impression that I'm doing eldritch magic, issuing gnomic commands inherited from the primal hackers, immersing my very self in the unknowable gnostic wisdom of Unix.
I have these problems with the Dell laptop running Windows 10 which I use for work, but not with my own desktop or laptop running Fedora. So, my experience is more or less the opposite apparently. This makes it harder for me to buy the theory that there's something uniquely inferior about these Linux desktops.