Older people, and those who aren't familiar with, or interested in computers often get really confused is things aren't consistent from pc to pc. Having spent a number of years working tech support for a major ISP (thank god that's over...) I have to say that a standard UI can be great.
I've noticed that a lot of Slashdotters seem to think that everyone should be able to do all the techie things they do if they just sat down and tried, but if you've ever spent 45 minutes on the phone with some old woman crying on the other end that this is far too complicated for her, and why can't we just send someone out there to do this for her, and you're still on "Step 1: Plug in telephone line to wall jack." (I am NOT exageratting) then you'll probably realize that it's a good thing if these people's UIs are laid out in roughly the same manner.
If you feel comfortable doing so, then you should be free to tweak and customize all you want, but a lot of people can only handle step by step instructions.
A certain amount of consistency out of the box is a good thing if you want Linux to have mass appeal. Although personally, I'd want to be able to maintain the same amount of variety and customability. I just think that making it so that there's a default UI that is consistant between distros.
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Older people, and those who aren't familiar with, or interested in computers often get really confused is things aren't consistent from pc to pc. Having spent a number of years working tech support for a major ISP (thank god that's over...) I have to say that a standard UI can be great.
I've noticed that a lot of Slashdotters seem to think that everyone should be able to do all the techie things they do if they just sat down and tried, but if you've ever spent 45 minutes on the phone with some old woman crying on the other end that this is far too complicated for her, and why can't we just send someone out there to do this for her, and you're still on "Step 1: Plug in telephone line to wall jack." (I am NOT exageratting) then you'll probably realize that it's a good thing if these people's UIs are laid out in roughly the same manner.
If you feel comfortable doing so, then you should be free to tweak and customize all you want, but a lot of people can only handle step by step instructions.
A certain amount of consistency out of the box is a good thing if you want Linux to have mass appeal. Although personally, I'd want to be able to maintain the same amount of variety and customability. I just think that making it so that there's a default UI that is consistant between distros.