On Tuesday, May 29, 2007 2:25 am Trond Danielsen wrote:
I do believe that most users actually care more about kernel hacks
and speedups than bling-bling on the desktop, they just do not know
it. Most of the people I know run Windows on their computers, and
they can roughly be divided into two groups: The non-technical users
that do not change anything, and the technical users that instantly
switches to the Windows classic interface once they get the chance. I
think they would be very upset if the support for their iPod was
replaced by drop shadows on windows :)
The biggest complains agains free software desktops is not the lack
of glossy themes, it is the lack of hardware and multimedia support,
speed and general stability. These are issues that are not solved by
being able to put virtual workspaces on a spinning cube, but rather
by adding support for new hardware to the kernel. The time that it
takes to boot a modern linux desktop and the time it takes to start
up a popular application like Openoffice, are also much more
important to gain attention from regular users.
Several of the practical considerations you mention are addressed by
kernel modesetting as well: robust suspend/resume support, better
hardware support (including power management), and better debugging
support, which should help us get better stability.
That said, I want to have my cake and eat it too: fast, pretty bootup
and featureful and stable system software. I'm working towards
both. :)
Jesse