> They can install it on any x86 laptop and yet it runs worse than windows a lot of times

Spoken like someone who hasn't been near a Linux desktop/laptop for more than a decade.

This is flat out false. FFS even gaming has massively advanced to the point where most games just work out of the box with Proton (some even run better than on Windows, like Elden Ring). What issues are there with user-level software outside of certain vendors not porting their software, for which usually there's a FOSS/cross-platform alternative which is usually good enough (of course it can't cover every scenario, but nobody is saying it should).

Some drivers are still shit, but funnily the last one I had issues with is a MediaTek WiFi/BT chip, which also has a shitty driver on Windows..

Funnily enough none of this is really news to me (and no it hasn't been more than a decade)

But I always went back to XFCE or Gnome2 because the slowness was palpable (Unity was a very bad OotB experience).

Mainstream distros are absolutely fine on desktop, especially compared to Windows which has been declining a lot since Windows 7 due to Microsoft pushing hard for extra monetization.

I'm using PopOS and it's as good as it gets. I have a few minor I18n complaints because I'm picky on that but Windows is much worse in this area.