And to a degree, the line is blurry with Windows as well, what with how deep MSVC/win32 is integrated into the system. .NET took decades to dis-entangle itself from Windows and become a proper standalone platform, and Microsoft's attempts at getting people to use UWP instead of win32 is ongoing and not very successful so far.

Interesting. It never occurred to me that there's a blurry line between the two. It seems to me that there's a very hard line between the two. I'm not sure I understand what you're saying here.

> For example, installing a C# or Go compiler on Linux is great with a package manager. But doing the same with a C or Python is different?

I'm confused by this question, so forgive me if this answer isn't really addressing it. A package manager is a convenience, nothing more. Using one means makes your life easier in a number of ways. But not using one isn't really that much more difficult. Package managers are 100% optional.