The Linux kernel's inability to gracefully handle low memory pressure
In Windows on a 16GB RAM laptop, I've often fired up Matlab, opened a 32GB matrix, and performed a few simple operations on it. In Windows Matlab dutifully chugs away on the problem, the disk spins like mad, and I put Matlab in the background and do email for 20 minutes. This identical use case completely cripples my Linux Mint OS, the mouse hangs, nothing functions, and I've never gotten it to even complete the operation. I just can't operate on a 32GB matrix with 16GB of RAM in Linux, but I can in Windows with relative ease.To me, this is the Linux kernel's biggest weakness against Windows. Most other gripes about Linux (poor power management, poor driver support, etc) belong outside the kernels domain, but this one is a glaring win for Windows over Linux.