[OT] A couple of links about Gnome and usability

[Richard Gaskin]

Like Tim noted, any user of any current major distro who prefers Gnome 2 
can install it and use it.   Ubuntu goes so far as to make this a 
one-click option at login.

And it's Linux:  there are more than a hundred distros to choose from, 
most of them almost infinitely configurable, so any Linux user 
complaining that they can't get exactly what they want hasn't really tried.

Anyone who used Mac at the turn of this century has already been through 
this sort of transition:  many folks hated OS X, and I know a couple 
people who still prefer OS 9 to this day.

What Apple did (and will likely do again when they merge OS X and iOS 
once ARM chips become strong enough to support that, or Intel's 
post-Medfield line does) is what Microsoft did with the transition from 
XP to Vista/7 and is doing again with the transition to Windows 8, is 
pretty much the same thing that Gnome is doing with Gnome 3 and 
Canonical is doing with Unity:  moving their OS designs from a more 
homogeneous past into an increasingly diverse present.

Times change, audiences change, and OS designs change along with them.

Where Linux outshines the others is its diversity:  there are plenty of 
options available for every taste.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  LiveCode training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
  Webzine for LiveCode developers: http://www.LiveCodeJournal.com
  LiveCode Journal blog: http://LiveCodejournal.com/blog.irv