Make. It. Simple. Linux Desktop Usability — Part 1
Why do desktop environments increasingly degrade the desktop UX that once used to be straightforward and “common sense”? Is there a secret plan to cripple the desktop experience by infecting it with less suitable UX concepts invented for mobile phones? In this series, I will look at recent worrisome trends in desktop Linux usability and contrast them with the thoughts of the very inventors of the desktop metaphor as we know it.
Let me get this out of the way right in the beginning: I like the Linux desktop. I care about the Linux desktop. I like the projects I am discussing here, and I appreciate the hard work people are putting in. But I’d like to see the Linux desktop improve. And I think a wakeup call is needed, because things are not always being changed for the better.
With this out of the way, let’s dive right in… Linux desktop usability, the good, the strange, and the outright ugly. OK, I will mostly skip the good in the interest of brevity.
