Umm, what? Linux desktop is considered by far to be the most efficient and responsive desktop user interfaces there are. We have DEs that run on 10 year old hardware with no delay and even tilling window managers that are as efficient as you could ever get with todays hardware.
Sure they are not average Joe friendly but to attack it's efficiency and responsiveness is preposterous.
Also, they have a lot of time. I have made a few UI's myself back in the DOS days, before they were always readily available. First I would make it work, then I would make it look good.
Behind what? I've been a daily linux user for the last decade or so, I've always felt the desktop experience was superior to to Windows and Mac. At least Gnome 2/3 has been.
Consistent UI, consistent configuration schemes, working suspend-resume, reliable WiFi, reliable auto mount of USB storage, and easy file sharing over LAN for starters.
None of these things was I able to achieve on my ThinkPad even 3 years ago when I last gave Linux a try.
> Consistent UI, consistent configuration schemes
Have you used Windows?
> easy file sharing over LAN
Every install of Ubuntu for years has come with a "public" folder for easy LAN sharing (Samba). https://xkcd.com/949/
Linux has pretty good drivers at this point, and in my experience, often better and more complete than Windows.
Not saying you’re lying or incompetent or anything, but I do think you had a very atypical. Maybe you’re not familiar with Linux? Not trying to put you down, but maybe I find that Linux works Because I’ve been using it for over 15 years at this point.
The number of times I've had network manager simply refuse to connect after opening the laptop lid makes me think we're just living in parallel universes.
You really can' fault desktop linux at least performance-wise. I have ~3ms input latency in vim on xterm. Good luck beating that on windows, or even a mac.
The reason linux on desktop lags behind is simple - 99% of desktops and laptops come pre-installed with either windows or macos.