Rant - Ur doin it right.....

My oh my,... Now THAT'S a catharsis!!! I'm glad someone just came out and said it all. The darnedest thing is that Linux already HAD all the bling it needed to be a fancy desktop or tablet, or phone OS,... Compiz, Cairo-dock or docky, customized window manager settings, etc. You could configure the desktops any way you wanted or could replace the whole DE, if you wanted.

Want it to be tablet ready?!?! Just get working multi-touch drivers, window manager controls that are finger friendly, and get the on screen keyboards working well enough to pop up when you need to type (there's one I can think of, Florence, I think it's called). Otherwise, all the existing elements were there to just coddle together.

Beautiful! Hairyfeet is a whiny pain in the arse, but this once he's nailed it.

And what JaseP said.

Time for some Zen

Patience Grasshoppers for Linux is not intelligent design it is evolution.

100s of things get tried lots discarded and what remains is golden.

I predict that

1) Unity will fail

2)Developer approved gnome shell will fail

3)Gnome Classic will fade away through neglect

4)Cinnamon will turn out nicely and end up more usable than Gnome 2.

I could be wrong since foretelling evolution is a difficult undertaking but one thing I am sure about. In 2014 we will have a much improved Linux desktop and a failed Microsoft.

/zenrant

@Montezuma,

I mostly agree. I've been happily using Cinnamon since it was released and I really like it.

I would change 4) to 'A Gnome3(Gtk3) based Gnome2-like desktop'. I know that this is what Cinnamon is, but official gnome3 fall back mode may also become more usable.

I'm not disagreeing with you, I just think the field is still too wide to place bets on a winner yet. Still, Cinnamon is surely influencing the final state of the gnome3 desktop.

On the outside,it could still be one of the stalking horses like XFCE, enlightenment, LXDE, Razor QT, or some unknown desktop (Yet to be developed) that wins the hearts and mind of users.

As long as it doesn't force me to engage in the constant view switching that is disruptive and inefficient like Gnome Shell and Unity force me to. Paging to a program launcher is so 1984.

Long version -- what JaseP said;

Short version -- what tuxchick said.

And since I'm agreeing ~96% (rough estimate) with hairyfeet, I've made an appointment with my doctor to discuss possible unforeseen interactions between my current meds.

@number6x

No disagreement here I just had a stab at where things might end up. I agree the situation is still very fluid. My point was simply that we should embrace the chaos of Linux because it is creative. It wipes out bad ideas and creates ultra solid good ones. The dynamic is turbulent but healthy.

Contrast that with Ballmer and his desperate copying of what everyone else has done. Every new MSFT product starts against a competitor already miles ahead in market share. Because he heads up a monopoly Ballmer has had no real pressure to produce a good new product for 15 years.

@monty,

This just in:

http://www.internetnews.com/blog/skerner/will-fedora-17-beef...

No promises just a request.

However, If Fedora 17 includes Cinnamon that could be a big time boost!