Ubuntu/linux: bad window manager, good stack
OSX: good window manager, good stack
Window manager: how much time you spend fussing with UI settings and how reliable it is day-to-day
Stack: how much time you spend installing, maintaining packages necessary for what you want to do (apps, libs, envs, etc.)
i'm curious though: as a layman in technical details but a fan of the tech world, i've always been under the impression that since windows was developed by a engineering-centric organization like MS, it should be far better for such technical uses, as opposed to OSX, developed by a design-centric company like Apple. am i completely wrong in that view?
Windows has ports here and there, and there's always Cygwin, but it's going to feel like a compatibility layer the whole time you're using it (especially if you're following guides/stack overflow help).
I've used all three stacks for years and couldn't happier with my latest MBPr (hardware or software wise).
OSX took the intelligent step forward of basically reskinning BSD (not exactly but it's concise enough) and adopting the Intel platform on the hardware side was enough to bridge the gap and eventually overtake it in many tech circles.
http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/sizeup
https://github.com/jigish/slate
I use slate because it's very configurable. Not what some people will be looking for, though.
At work, on Linux, I use quicktile.