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Comment by mixmastamyk | Hacker News Reader

I like the idea of a new competitor in this space, however I was a bit disappointed in their direction. Not sure of others but I don't need another gnome3-like (dumbed-down, grandma-friendly, immature paradigm, rather be a tablet) interface. These linux-based desktops will never be popular; that ship sailed long ago.

However, I desperately need a professional, stable, feature-complete, mostly bug-free workstation GUI with modern capabilities at least as good as Win2000/XP, Irix, NeXT like I had 10+ years ago.

Something like Xfce polished to OSX-level quality.

If one of the design-goals is that "menus are too difficult" there is no market available for that product. The people that would benefit use Windows, OSX, iOS, and Android already.

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It seems like KDE already handles your needs: it's well-integrated, stable and has all the modern capabilities you could want. Certainly far better than XP! I've used KDE a fair bit, and the recent versions have been superb. Sure, it's heavyweight compared to some of its bare-bones competitors, but that's the only way to fulfill all your conditions.

Of course, the truly "professional" choice would be XMonad layered over something minimal. But that's a different discussion for a different time :P.

It would seem so. Unfortunately, I've given it a try every other year and have been disgusted every time. The technology is nice, but it feels like it was designed by 90's IT guy. Clutter and programmer-art is not what I am looking for either.

KDE at least the versions I have used have a bunch of little annoyances that just break usage for me.

Mostly having to do with things like KWallet integration or other little pieces not working properly. I've used workstations that still run Windows 95/2000 for machines and they work great but KDE 4 leaves me missing its 3.x variant.

XFCE could probably be a viable replacement though, it is familiar and easy to use it just has its little gotchas as well (which are more annoying on a laptop than a desktop though).

>there is no market available for that product. The people that would benefit use Windows, OSX, iOS, and Android already.

There's a huge market for that product - everyone already using Windows, OSX, iOS, and Android. Talk about validation (minus Windows at least, where it's not clear what portion use it b/c they have to vs want to).

I remember at the time of the Vista launch spending a quiet afternoon going in to donate blood at the Red Cross. They had quite some more donors than they had expected, so there was lots of time to wait. While I waited, I discussed Vista with someone who was clearly a Windows enthusiast. It was also fairly clear that they weren't much of a technologist. I sort of spent the time trying to find the words to encourage him to give it a little time. I was and still am using XP. I have Linux in some VMs. I can see transitioning, but haven't bitten the bullet.

More succinctly, I wonder if you are projecting your doubts a little bit.

>More succinctly, I wonder if you are projecting your doubts a little bit.

Not sure I understand you correctly. To clarify, what I'm saying is, any OS that people use because they want to is an opportunity to do it better and sway them. They may be personally invested, but they're invested because it's a good product, so if you can one-up that you have a chance of winning them over, and it's actually possible they could swap to your OS.

If they're using an OS b/c corporate IT mandates it, fat chance they'll ever reinstall their work computer's desktop.

I just don't have any good guess as to what portion of Windows users are the former or latter.

Not sure about that, but we know approximately how many people have changed to a Linux desktop, and it has always been near 1%.

And that's all it may ever be, and that's fine as long as the reason isn't b/c Linux is self-sabotaging by not having a highly polished, competitive desktop experience.

It's getting close, Ubuntu is arguably there, but obviously alternatives are needed since not everyone likes Unity. Kudos to eOS for shaping up to be another viable contender.

Ok, a huge market that has 0% interest in a new Linux desktop.

IMHO there is a huge market for replacing menus with somthing "simpler" and faster, look at the "ribbon" in MS Office.

ps: not trolling but I gave to my grandma a linux laptop (ubuntu and unity) and I think it's always great to have alternatives

There is no market for desktop linux. The only people there in substantial quantities are technical workers, where menus have worked just fine for thirty years.

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