Simplicity vs. Customizability in Desktop Design
Linked by Allen Boyles on Mon 7th Nov 2011 09:46 UTC
Graphics, User Interfaces In the commercial software world, user interfaces are generally designed by one group. Like Microsoft for Windows or Apple for Mac OS. Those desktop environments were designed by one company who did things like user testing and statistical analysis to try and make the desktop they thought would work best. Linux is different. Large groups definitely DO perform user testing and statistical analysis, but one group can also say "Here's what we want" and, if they have the ability to code it, their idea comes into being. It's pretty amazing, when you think about it. Linux lets people create what they want. If you don't like what's out there, fork it! Or start from scratch! You're in control!
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Comment by moondevil
by moondevil on Mon 7th Nov 2011 10:09 UTC
moondevil
Member since:
2005-07-08

I have been using Linux since the early days where twm was the only option. Since then I have used:

- FVWM (the original one, not the new one with the same name)
- FVWM 2
- AfterStep
- WindowMaker
- Enlightment
- GNOME
- KDE

I remember spending endless hours customizing my environment to feel just right.

Nowadays I use mostly Windows (XP and 7) as my main desktop with Linux mostly on the serve side, and I hardly care about desktop configuration as long as it works and some minimal configuration is available.

And I belong to the ones that think GNOME 3 is actually nice to use.

EDIT: copy-paste error

Edited 2011-11-07 10:09 UTC

Reply Score: 4