Freedom of updating and installing newer versions of software without waiting for maintainer/distro half of year to build new package (outdated next week because it's STABLE package).
This is main problem of any linux desktop initiative - linux users get newer gimp after windows users.
Hope snaps/flatpack/appimage solve this problem in future (snap versions of apps look ugly now).
Using "stable" distros makes little sense for other than complete newbies and enterprise-like critical usage and such imo. If you don't need bleeding edge stuff they are a good choice though, but for average users modern rolling releases are definitely stable enough.
The freedom is there.
I just replaced my GPU today. I ran `sudo pacman -S nvidia`, rebooted, and I was good to go.
As an aside: Arch isn't as "bleeding edge" as some people would have you believe. They have a testing repository, so packages get vetted before making it into the main package repositories. They often wait for a point-release of some software (like Gnome Shell) to help ensure that only stable versions make it in.
Plus, the Arch wiki is the most useful Linux resource I've found. I reference it even when I'm using an Ubuntu machine.
New version of Gimp available for all windows users at day one after release is not bleeding edge - it's just normal new release.
Meaning of "bleeding edge" and "stable" became strangely twisted in linux community.
New version of browser is not bleeding edge - it just normal life cycle of modern software (year 2019).
You have this freedom. It is known as "compiling from sources". In fact GNU/Linux is the only big OS/ecosystem where you have this freedom.
But like all other freedoms, you have to work hard for it.
On windows you just can download the same program and use it without any compiling. And you can freely downgrade it if you want to. No compiling, no messing with repos, makeinstall, and randomly corrupted system.
Then use Arch, or some other rolling release distro.
> Hope snaps/flatpack/appimage solve this problem in future
These are terrible solutions, not least due to the theming issue. Rolling release is the real solution.
Windows + chocolatey or macos + brew (cask) is better than any repository with dependencies on linux.
Also, do not want Arch or any <distro-name> - I just want LINUX (or Desktop Linux).
One predictable system, instead of many kinds/variants of basically the same programs - one system to hate, one system to deal with. (Arch wiki is good though)
What do you mean ? How can you have Linux without using a distro ? Are you saying there should be one official distro instead of many ?
And this is why I think snap/flatpack/etc model ("system" in system) is real solution for linux desktop.
Valve's Steam client already achieved same thing: provided one "sdk" for apps, one runtime (that developer can rely on) - because you can't have one main linux organisation like microsoft and apple.
Linux is kernel - I talk about good alternative for macOS/Windows, alternative desktop system, that can do much better than other two.
[Awaits inevitable flood of comments along the lines of "I tried x on Ubuntu and it didn't work but it worked fine on y"]