
Being a BeOS user (a purely desktop system) and because I code under Linux, I see
XFree86 (v4.1 on my machine) as a user and as a developper. And this is where the problem lies. My Gnome or KDE desktops are slow in comparison with other operating systems, but XFree86, the 'engine' behind these desktops, proves me that it's not. Let's look at what I have in front of me: a dual Pentium III at 933Mhz with 512MB of memory, a Radeon 32 AIW, a modified Mandrake 8.0 powered by kernel 2.4.18.
Isn't this the same effect as when you took screen shots of bugs in Mozilla 1.1's XUL rendering? People claimed that was a problem with your video drivers, did they not? Well, do you think it was your drivers, or was it a bug in Mozilla?
The point is the problem exists, regardless of whether or not you're experiencing it.