Linux is the only option IMO, but I have a very high yakshaving tolerance. That said, if you run a recent Ubuntu, most stuff "just works" as long as you don't need Photoshop or the Office suite.
What's wrong with 4k monitors? I'm typing this on Fedora machine with one (default install with no tinkering, Gnome on Wayland).
Mixed DPI is not coming to X11 displays. If you insist on X11, you are going to have bad time.
macOS can scale different parts of an application differently depending on which screen it is on. So if you are in the process of moving an application from one screen to another, it doesn't change size mid-move.
Windows can't do that, and I've even seen applications where all windows belonging to an application use the same DPI (chosen based on which window is in focus), regardless of the DPI of the screen the window itself is on.
So it seems to me the integration of mixed-DPI into window rendering APIs was not well handled by the development team behind its implementation in Windows.
The most common "solution" I see is lowering the resolution of the high-DPI display, but that's not a solution, that's actually not even a workaround, it is literally removing the problem by pretending my screen is not as good as it is.
Compare the experience with Windows for example, where disconnecting from your external monitors pushes all applications and windows to the remaining monitors, and doesn't restore them when the external monitor is reconnected.
macOS also handles mixed-DPI really well, no other vendor even comes close, Windows simply scales according to the monitor most of the application window is on, resulting in ugly resizing of applications when moving from one monitor to another.
I don't know what you're talking about with regards to "turning on HiDPI", can you elaborate?
Huh? I have a dock that I disconnect and reconnect from all the time; windows move onto my laptop screen when I disconnect, and move back onto my docked screen when I reconnect.
I do kind of like MacOS, but am concerned about their lack of strong interest in it.
I would pay for a "vertically integrated" open hardware Linux laptop. I've seen some promising projects but none are mature enough.
The second issue is apps, but that can be mitigated by having a Windows VM.
I would argue that any major Linux distro at this point "just work" just as well as MacOS
Yeah, there may actually be close to a dozen people commenting here!
>I would argue that any major Linux distro at this point "just work" just as well as MacOS
Given my perennial attempts to switch to Linux which are inevitably thwarted by aggravating driver bugs and incompatibility issues with X Windows and Wayland (both), I'm inclined to disagree.