I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that PlayStation runs FreeBSD. Maybe the source was close enough that porting to Linux wasn't a major effort?
Could this be another intended incompatibility that Microsoft introduced to push Windows 10? They did it with CPU support limitations and the newest DirectX version if I remember correctly, so maybe they decided to give gamers another "incentive".
(I'm less of a fan of Windows 8.1. They made it more desktop-like but it lost its uniqueness.)
It doesn’t, actually. It works out of the box if wired through USB, or when using the expensive wireless dongle, but it doesn’t work out of the box over Bluetooth. You have to apply nasty hacks to the BT stack to make it work. PS4 controller is just pair & go.
These controllers use some kind of DRM that requires disabling a feature of the BT stack (ertm) using a non-persistent kernel parameter that breaks other BT devices. I
I've always avoided using it because of the horror story from early models, but I might pick up a used PS4 controller for PC gaming if BT works well.
i.e. Sony has custom everything, including input stack.