Linux vs. Windows: Choice vs. Usability

ThaReetLad writes "In this article at DevX, Executive Editor A. Russell Jones makes the case for a standardised GUI for Linux. He argues that the promotion of choice of GUI as a positive feature of using Linux is detrimental to its chances of attacking Microsoft's home user monopoly. From the article: '...the open source community must recognize that its primary goals: freedom of choice, freedom of source code, and freedom to alter applications, are not the goals of the average user.' In particular he argues that the choice of desktop between KDE, Gnome, IceWM etc, is not one that a former windows user, even a fairly technically competent one, is going to able to make an informed choice on, and that they should not be forced to make that choice in order to get good use out of any applications they might want to use."

doesn't linux already come with a standard UI

[TonyPyGarthno]

its called the terminal =)

You certainly haven't bowed...

[Anonymous Coward]

... to the rules of grammar and spelling. Bravo.

We need a king!

[Arandir]

Several thousand years ago, the nation of Israel did not have a king. They were a free people. One description of their political system could have been "anarcho-theocracy". But all the nations around them had despotic kings. So the people went to their wisest member, Samuel, and asked him for a king. He warned them that a king would tax then, draft them, murder the best generals so he could sleep with their wives, bankrupt the economy by building guilded temples, instigate civil wars, and divert public funds for the promotion of foreign religions. But the people were adamant. So they got their king.

Skip forward to the modern day. The people of Linux look around them and see slavery, subjugation, domination and product activation everywhere but in their own OS. They started to grumble. "It's not fair that they live in squalor with MSDN subscriptions to tell them what to do. We need a king as well!" So they went to their wisest and said, "Place a king over us, to tell us what desktop we must use! The people of Windows mock us because we have choice. The people of Apple mock us because we are free. The people of Sun mock us because we don't meekly follow orders. Give us a king!"

And so the wisest relented and gave them a king. And the king sent his soldiers into the land to enforce his will. The new desktop would be Knome. Any who used KDE or GNOME would be banished. Any who used XFCE, Windowmaker or Blackbox would be arrested. Any who programmed for Qt, GTK+, Fox or FLTK would be pilloried. Distributions who offered their users a choice were stripped of the LSB certification.