Both Windows and Mac OS run Linux apps better than Linux does now. No greater testament to the humiliating defeat of open source than this.
How do they run em better?
Also, when you use absolutes, like "All significant open source development is done by folks ... cashing a paycheck" you are guaranteed to be wrong. It is also disingenuous to people who actually are out there scratching an itch... and to all those developers who started by scratching and itch and finding customers or companies to pay them to keep scratching that itch.
Windows, well Microsoft did a big mistake of never managing the POSIX subsystem in a proper way.
Linux took off thanks to GPL, BSD ongoing legal problems at the time, and Microsoft just doing the basic regarding POSIX support on Windows.