As someone who uses more than one monitor, my Mac has far more issues than my Linux boxes.

Same here. What frustrates me is that Apple pretty much invented seamless multiple monitor integration back in the early 90s, but the Apple of today has either forgotten how to do it or they just don't care.

Huh, I’ve never once had a problem with multiple monitors and macs over the last 15 years. But at most I’m running two monitors.

I have a iMac with two external monitors, and during boot it does this crazy dance where one monitor goes on, then off, then two monitors go on, and so on for a few rounds until shit settles and all three are on.

On the other hand, if you swap "Linux" and "Windows" in your complaint, you get my experience.

Windows is a hassle to get working for advanced use cases, and then every quarter they nuke my settings via windows update.

I just can't do it. I managed to go about 6 months last year on Windows for the first time since ~2010, but nope. Not worth it.

This mirrors my experience.

Windows gives you nice sliders for things, which they will happily break on a whim. Linux forces you to memorize a Lovecraftian string of characters to do something, but it will generally stick for a long time.

I use both, with differing ideologies. My Linux is heavily customized with keybinds and semi-niche software that enables my workflows because I know it will stick. On my Windows machines, I've accepted that Microsoft owns that machine and I have to adapt my workflow to fit their sensibilities.

Skill issue

I prefer my OS to not require “skill” (there’s no skill left in the age of AI anyways, just wasted time)

Trick is to use the newest distro release with previous cycle hardware

Given that Windows still doesn't even support multiple monitors in any meaningful way, I'm not sure what you're complaining about.

I'm no Windows defender but this is nonsense. Windows has BY FAR the best multi monitor support of any of the major OS's, including any variant of Linux.

Are we talking about the same Windows that moves all your windows around when you temporary disconnect a display, even when the computer is locked?

Or is it the windows that sometimes ends up with windows positioned partially on a display that is no longer connected so that you can't move it because any control for that is offscreen.

How do you get it to work then? Because at the moment whenever I open my Windows laptop plugged into a docking station the screens just come up in a random order.

Sometimes all three are mirrored, sometimes by chance they're the right way round, sometimes the "main" screen is one one of the external monitors and then you're absolutely knackered if you don't manage to convince it to go onto the laptop's panel before you unplug because there's no way to get it back.

It's all just so half-assed.

In Linux multiple monitors have worked perfectly for about 20 years.

You're probably right but it's really sad that an OS that shuffles everything you have open when it hits power save and turns off the screens would qualify as the best.