> I hear you on "I care about consistent, well though ought design guidelines that users can rely on across many applications" that is a pain point for many linux distros. Nothing is more frustrating than having 80% of your apps looks similar and then 20% stand out like a sore thumb. It's probably one of the top reasons that I pick OS X over linux, I think people work better on things that look better and all fit together well.
It's not just looks. Almost every Windows application has the same keyboard shortcuts. How many X-based Linux applications is that true for? Even classic command-line utils are wildly inconsistent (look at dd, for instance).
OS X has some great things about it but there is so much software that is only on Windows that I want to use that it ends up being hard to use other OSs for desktop (I've used both Linux and OS X for several years before coming back).
> Almost every Windows application has the same keyboard shortcuts.
I don't use keyboard shortcuts as much as some people may but I've never experienced issues with hotkey differences between apps in OS X. The one's I use are always consistent.
> there is so much software that is only on Windows
I don't have this issue either. For every daily task I do I have a native OS X app that performs without issues (often looking better while doing it than their windows alternative/equivalent). There is 1 single windows app that I need to use 1-2 times a month that a vendor provides and I have a VirtualBox VM for that. I do understand that different sectors/professions will have different experiences but OS X does everything I need it to do and I've never felt restrained.
I agree that Windows and OS X are roughly equal (maybe OS X is a little better) when it comes to UI consistency, consistent keyboard shortcuts, etc. That's not true of Linux applications, generally (which is why I said "X-based Linux applications," not "OS X applications").
As far as your second point, I'm glad for you, but it wasn't my experience and I got really sick of jumping through hoops trying to emulate a Windows environment for various software that was not available in OS X.
It's not just looks. Almost every Windows application has the same keyboard shortcuts. How many X-based Linux applications is that true for? Even classic command-line utils are wildly inconsistent (look at dd, for instance).
OS X has some great things about it but there is so much software that is only on Windows that I want to use that it ends up being hard to use other OSs for desktop (I've used both Linux and OS X for several years before coming back).