It's more likely to get it run on WSL than assuming it would just work on a Mac.
Not to mention that it looks and feels old, which most people likely don't care as it's still more modern than windows ever was since 95.
You will constantly pay the differences. In the 1 year or so I worked with a Mac I bought like 10 <$5 tools for things that would be a single command in Linux.
Depending on your hardware and what you do it will be slower, or slightly faster. If it's faster in anything it will likely run hot enough to cook some eggs on it.
Edit:// maybe just try a stable distro first
If not, then maybe try a different distro, like Ubuntu.
If you want something that just works, Ubuntu on either a Dell XPS or Thinkpad is your best bet.
If you want something with nice hardware, I would suggest a Dell XPS. The Dell XPS designs are not perfect, but Ubuntu just works on it aside from maybe the fingerprint reader which I never bothered with.
I mostly use a Mac, but also use android and Linux devices. It helps me remain vendor neutral as I ensure all applications I use work across all of them.
They can be great if you have a large wallet and simply want a computer that will integrate easily with your iPhone or any other Apple products. I use an iPhone myself because I’ve had bad experiences with Android devices, but every few years I try a new Android phone anyway.
Apple does not care about their end users. The hardware they retail is overprivced and the M chips are over hyped, especially with ARM PC:s now available.
Their OS was great back in 2000-2010 but has since become more and more unstable, while Linux has moved in the opposite direction. Today I would argue Linux is at least as easy to manage.
Some apps integrate better with OS X, and the magnetic charger cable is a plus. Then again, using external monitors is difficult, and if anything breaks in your nice Apple laptop it will be difficult to mend and cost and arm and a leg. All in all, I would stay away from them.
On the other hand most of these microcuts can be researched, solved or scripted away. With my mac I have far fewer, but the ones you have, you’re often stuck with. Generally these are about flakiness with the automagic stuff. Like the camera feed switching to your iphone for a while (whether you want it or not), then suddenly refusing for weeks even when you do want it.
Also, the mac has no tiling wm that comes within a parsec of i3. I miss i3 daily. So. Much. Especially with multiple screens.
But then again, I enjoy opening the lid of my laptop daily as well. And being able to close the lid and put it in my bag, without first listening if it succesfully went to sleep. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I guess what I’m saying is: pick the annoyances that give you the smallest emotional response at this time in your life.
* Recent Macbooks have an incredible battery life, that's for sure.
* macOS is not Linux, and Linux is not macOS.
I personally like Linux a lot more than macOS, therefore I run Linux on my laptop. It's not a pain at all: just make sure you get a laptop that is well supported (seems a lot easier than 20 years ago, I personally run on ThinkPads).
The way you write (e.g. you see running Linux on a laptop as "a trouble"), you sound like you like macOS better but were using Linux because it was cheaper. In that case go for a Macbook if it's now affordable!
That being said, if you really want to be persuaded, give Linux a little more time, and accept some friendly advice. First of all, make sure you’re running hardware that’s not going to give you trouble. If you have the resources to buy a new Apple laptop, you can afford a refurb from eBay with compatible hardware. Don’t overthink the specs, Linux runs better on 10 year old hardware than windows did when it was brand new on the same machine. Steer well clear of NVidia. Their hardware is nothing but trouble.
Second, XMonad is a weird choice if you’re just starting out. It’s Fun with a capital F, but trouble free it’s not. It (a) still doesn’t support Wayland, which means you’re bound to the increasingly creaky and unsupported XOrg and (b) last I used it, XMonad was configured by recompiling a Haskell program. If you’re not a committed Haskell user, this adds a ton of friction. Just use sway if you want a tiling WM.