> If you're a Linux sysadmin type, it's nice to stay in the same environment as your vms, kubernetes, docker/podman containers, etc.

I help sysadmin a few hundred servers, and given the choice I went with a MacBook because Terminal and SSH was good enough to admin stuff. MacOS is also pretty good with the business-y apps I have to deal with at times.

A colleague went with a x86 laptop and installed Ubuntu on it, and has regular issues with audio (Google Meeting, Zoom, etc), screen sharing (seems to be Wayland), etc.

At a previous job I had a Linux workstation under my desk and a Windows laptop, but with hybrid/remote I 'combined the two' into a Apple laptop.

Yeah, I would never in a million years run anything on Ubuntu. It's not exactly known for stability and reliability.

Sure, it's definitely nice to have a consistent env, no particular argument there.

It's more "where are the barriers/locks?" that I was interested in

Well, I can't really put Linux on most Macs. That's a barrier to me.

Apple doesn't want my money, because Apple doesn't want to sell me a laptop. Apple wants to sell me a curated experience with multiple components in their ecosystem.

On M1 / M2, asahi linux has decent support. People daily drive it.

Yes there has been some initial work done, but it's not exactly a mainstream daily driver suitable for deploying in a production environment.