shiny desktop, anyone?

[Jesse Barnes]

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