Roughly six years ago (2019?) I wrote this response on Quora (before I abandoned it due to the low quality & trolling nature of most questions) to the highly provocative question: "Why do programmers love Linux the most?"
I've republished my response (which received lots of views and upvotes and a few responses), which I thought encapsulated my own experience of the appeal of Linux effectively, here:
Why do programmers love Linux the most?
Linux was written by programmers for programmers. It’s not owned by a marketing company (e.g. Microsoft or Apple) for whom correctness isn’t the primary objective - strategic release dates (regardless of whether the software’s ready or not) is. The Linux developer community - and those surrounding various distributions like Debian, Fedora, Ubuntu, CentOS, Linux Mint, SuSE, etc. - has a philosophy of “release when ready, but not before”… but all the dev releases are also visible to all. In other words: anyone can watch how the sausages are made… and more importantly, anyone can take part.
Linux can be anything for anyone, because Linux’s GNU General Public License (the “copyleft” license - a hack on the dubious law of Copyright - under which the kernel along with much other Free and Open Source Software is released) ensures that the Linux kernel and surrounding ecosystem not only allows, but actively encourages, all users to also be developers.
That level playing field, where everything can be examined, tested in action, improved, and those improvements distributed (!!) makes Linux totally different from almost all other OS options (there’re a few relatively obscure alternatives, like the *BSDs), allowing permissionless innovation in the kernel space, and, by virtue of that, anything that builds upon the kernel (which is everything in the amazingly rich and diverse Linux distribution ecosystems).
An analogy
Apple’s MacOS (although built on vaguely open source Darwin, it’s still wholly proprietary thanks to its dependence on its graphical desktop which is completely proprietary) is a sterile underground concrete bunker with tile floors, swept clean with a single desk in the middle of it.
Microsoft’s Windows is a huge empty carpark/parking lot - surrounded by hurricane fencing topped with barbed wire - with a few cracks in it, with weeds growing through (the occasional one has a flower on it, heroically - but futilely - trying to add a little colour).
In contrast, Linux is a lush, fertile landscape, burgeoning with interesting plants and quirky critters, where the circle of life plays out every day in a myriad of ways. Yes, there’s a bit of mud, and a few mosquitoes, but the views are amazing, and the experiences are authentic and unforgettable.
As a career developer, I made the move to Linux in 1994, and feel fortunate for having done so every single day and feel sad for those whose existence is made so much more drab by the constrained, claustrophobic proprietary computing environment to which they’re consigned. It must really suck to have your digital existence controlled by the Microsoft, Apple, or Google corporations.