That seems backwards. Linux distro's come with mostly reasonable defaults and a decent set of apps. Windows PCs come with loads of crapware and no useful apps to speak of.
Windows 11 is full of Microsoft crap I’ll give you that.
But configuring a brand new MacBook or new Linux install for development is pure hell. It’s a bloody nightmare. Linux is, for better and worse, an endless stream of configuration. The upside is you CAN configure it. The downside is you have to, constantly.
> Call me old, but I have no interest in dealing with the amount of configuration and tweaking necessary to be productive in a Linux environment.
I was responding to this statement. Do you want constantly and carefully configure your machine? Use Linux and be happy! Do you want something that works out of the box? Windows is pretty darn good.
I do game development which is Windows through and through. YMMV.
I teach a software development undergraduate programme. We have our students use Linux for all development. We have them do no configuration whatsoever, unless you count installing a couple of packages from the package manager and a few vscode extensions. Works just fine out of the box.