If you’re not already running Linux desktop, then Linux desktop is a viable option only if you value your time at exactly zero.
Ex. I've lost a complete day because I didn't know you need to open xcode to confirm the policy of an update I did in the console. I never used xcode before that day.
No doubt. But it no doubt required a SIGNIFICANT time investment to get to the point where they can just use their machines “without wasting time”.
I install Linux on families computers for years now. And maintaining is zero at this point. The majority of computer usage of a normal user is within their browser and maybe office programs and some gaming. All perfectly fine with Linux.
Possibly true, dependant on what you're trying to develop.
> better digital audio system
ProTools Linux?
Cubase Linux?
Ableton Live Linux?
The vast majority of plugins for above DAWs?
If you're talking about purely the system, then it's all moot without having some software for audio professionals to run on it.
> better game platform
Now I know you're trolling. edit: sorry I forgot the "Compared to Mac?" part at the beginning, this is probably true, but I have zero experience gaming on Mac or Linux.
Basic system tools have been broken on macs for a few major releases now. And I'm familiar with fixing up lots of Darwin-specific issues in software packaging by now. There's seriously a number of downsides here unless you have to use Xcode.
I wrote digital audio system for a reason. Pipewire is currently the best implementation out of the 3 major systems. Whether you want to use it with a DAW or in a different way that requires a Mac-only application is orthogonal here. For a lot of DAW work, you don't even need a fancy sound system to begin with. But also there are DAWs which do work on Linux and there are people preferring them.
> The vast majority of plugins
Yabridge is there for embedding windows VSTs. It's not that bad.