Does the Linux Desktop Innovate Too Much?

jammag writes "The Linux desktop has seen major innovation of late, with KDE 4 launching new features, GNOME announcing a new desktop, and Ubuntu embarking on a redesign campaign. But Linux pundit Bruce Byfield asks, do average users really want any of these things? He points to instances of user backlash, and concludes 'Free software is still driven by developers working on what interests or concerns them. The problem is, the days when users of free software were also its developers are long gone, but the habits of those days remain. The result is that developers function far too much in isolation from their user base.' Byfield suggests that the answer could be more user testing."

Comments

Re:Very Misleading Title for the Topic

[MBGMorden]

Not to mention that as someone who worked in support once upon a time, that level of configurability would be a NIGHTMARE.

Rep: "Click on the balloon icon?"
Customer: "The what?"
Rep: "The icon next to the ruler."
Customer: "Oh. I made mine look like a pony. I love ponies.".
Rep: "Whatever. On the window that pops up go to the formatting tab."
Customer: "I don't see it. What's it do?"
Rep: "It lets you change how your text looks.".
Customer: "OH THAT. I renamed it to 'How stuff looks.'. I drug it over to that 'About' window too, because how my file looks is kinda like what it's about, you know?"

Just look at what most users DO do with the customization options they're given. Mind you, not Slashdoters who want to "tweak for optimum performance" (which is only true for half of them - the other half will do things like transparent terminal windows that must get dragged into just the right positions for the most 1337 UI screenshot they can devise), I mean your standard old cubicle bound office worker. They don't try to make anything more efficient or fluid. No, they have a pile of icons scattered around their desktop with kitten wallpapers, dinosaur cursors, yellow/pink/neon green color schemes, and cows mooing at them when they throw something in the trash.

Just as I wouldn't want to sell these people a TV that had an easy access panel and included a soldering iron and modding options, I wouldn't want to give them software that's TOO easily changed either.