Linux, what are our objectives?

[markw-FJ05HQ0HCKaWd6l5hS35sQ at public.gmane.org]

> On Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 08:37:26AM -0500, markw-FJ05HQ0HCKaWd6l5hS35sQ at public.gmane.org wrote:
>> They got rid of desktop icons – more or less. They are no longer files
>> or
>> directories in your desktop folder, but something different. Does it
>> bother anyone that they did this? One of the things I like about the
>> historical UNIX model is that things that seem similar, are similar. The
>> notion that icons on the desktop are different than icons on the file
>> browser troubles me. It seems like a divergence from a coherent model to
>> a
>> more complicated and confusing one.
>
> I do away with all desktop icons completely on my machines.
> Desktop real-estate is at a premium (he says, looking at a
> 1680x1050 display next to a 2048x1536 display) and not to be
> wasted on application launchers.

Surely that is your choice, but in effect you support my argument. The
issue is should the "desktop" look similarly to a file browser but
function differently, and more to the point, why did they take a
functionality out?

The desktop metaphor is a pretty good one for most people, you can put
commonly used things on the desktop and get them quickly. By modifying the
metaphor, I think they make it less efficient.

>
>> So the question I have is this: is [K]ubuntu really the direction in
>> which
>> we as a community wish to see Linux go? Is it like the republican party,
>
> Kubuntu is the direction which the Kubuntu group likes.
> Xubuntu is the direction which the Xubuntu group likes.
> Ubuntu is the direction which Shuttleworth likes.
> Red Hat is the direction which the Red Hat corporation likes.
> Debian is the direction which the Debian community likes.
> SuSE is the direction which Novell likes.
> Gentoo is the direction which a bunch of crazed tweakers like.
>
> All of them are Linux.

Of course they are, but the general trend exampled by KDE4 and GNOME are
to simplification and removal of features. It is easy to say that all
these distros are different, and while it is true, it hides the underlying
trend that I mention.

I am a Linux user, I've been using Linux since 1995 almost exclusively
since 1996/1997, for my desktops and my servers. I don't want a pedantic
argument about how Gentoo or Slackware are different and thus there is no
point, (I use slackware for some of my embedded projects) the general
trend in the major players is to merely emulate Windows.

As stake holders in this conversation, is there a better direction which
we can envision and articulate that is more innovative than the
conventional wisdom of imitation of Windows?