I don't understand why people insist on this shoehorning either.
It's like some obscene tribal topos that refuses to die.
KDE 1.0 came out in 1998 - 23 years ago (O god I'm old).
The discussion of "Linux to replace windows desktop" is over two decades old.
In computer age this is something geological. It's like... well, Macintosh came out in 1984. Xerox Alto came 1973. If we go back 5 years we reach Englebart's Mother of All Demos in 1968 which I think can be considered the intellectual precursor of those.
So there is 5 years from a tech demo on high-end research platform to a (more or less) commoditized consumer offering - even though Xerox had no idea what to do with it. Steve Jobs visits Xerox 1979 and five years later they deliver Macintosh.
So, with engineering talent PLUS business drive they copy the idea, implement their own hardware and software stack and are instant hit (well, let's say for the sake of this discussion they are a hit).
In FIVE years.
Linux is trying to copy the software stack, of an existing platform, and has been "attempting" this for two decades.
This is not an engineering problem. This is not a community problem. It's a "lack of business interest problem".
Honestly, the Linux desktop is quite usable. I'm quite sure two decades are enough for the open source software stack to find some local optimum for the desktop offering.
But really, copying and supporting a continuously moving target needs real capital and real business drive to sustain the boring, mind numbing support work that is needed to actually sustain an industrial quality platform.
Linux is fantastic in lots of things.
I'm not sure reverse engineering Windows stack on Linux is very effective way of spending our civilizations engineering resources.
I appreciate masochistic Rude Goldbergish feats of engineering as much as the next geek, but I just don't see the value of individuals detached from the corporations that are implementing the master stack trying to reverse engineer everything on top of a third party platform.
Native Linux support? That would be nice. Native drivers and all? That would be nice.
If it works for someone that's very cool and satisfying - but I still think reverse engineering based gaming stacks for modern platforms that are alive and well are not perhaps the best way to spend engineering effort.