That may be your experience, but it's not mine. I've been using Ubuntu since 2006 or so and I have never had to do the things you mentioned or had any issues. I don't even know how to mess with kernel modules or window managers.

My experience with Apple has been far from "Getting things done". Just to name a few issues:

* I had a screen saver (one of the stock ones) turned on and it would cause my fan to go crazy

* It still doesn't always sleep, I sometimes find it running low on battery in the morning because an application woke it up

* I have had to use the Apple store which requires a phone number, credit card, etc to just get XCode

* Maximize doesn't seem to always work

* I can't keep a window always on the top

* Changing the password for wifi sucks

* If I change my system password, for some reason I always get these annoying and constant popups saying that so-and-so wants access to something, which only works on the old password

* Copying and pasting does weird stuff, adds in a bunch of crap that I don't want often

* Updating my OS takes forever and does whatever it wants without giving me much insight into what is going on

* Unlocking my computer takes a long time