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To you. Well... to me, too, but there is a reason why such WMs exist. Reason: There are users who found that especially "minimalist" settings are the best environment for their individual work and productivity.

Furthermore, "minimalist" applies possibly to how something looks to you, but in regards of configuration options, some "minimalist" WMs are very extended! You can configure and change things that you don't have control over in, let's say, KDE or "Windows", because those do not come with any kind of interface that lets you manipulate such settings. And yes, I do consider a text based configuration file as such an interface.



Most professional system administrators and programmers that I've met do mostly use xterminals end editors.

But of course I do not judge from other one's screenshots. You can only form an opinion about a WM by using it. I've used many, and I didn't like many, and I could tell you why. "It doesn't look good" never was a primary reason.



If the goal is to appeal to the "average user", being mainstream is important, I agree. But that's marketing and advertisement, not functionality. If people do judge from first visual impressions more than from an educated point of view, well, you found the problem. :-)

I have been imagining a compositing tiling WM lately, I think it could actually work fairly well if not too flashy.

Anyway, not much to add but I would like to see more emphasis on tiling WM's also, it sounds kind of funny but I think they are the way forward (ah one can dream).

To you. Well... to me, too, but there is a reason why such WMs exist. Reason: There are users who found that especially "minimalist" settings are the best environment for their individual work and productivity. "

Right, but you said "popular distro". Understand, I'm not criticizing those minimalist WMs, but they're very much aimed at a small userbase of serious power users. And that's kind of hard to reconcile with being a widely used "popular" distro, targeting the mass market.