I would like to add. It's not only those who are not so tech savy that have problems.
I DO NOT WANT to spend time learning how a desktop UI works. I have more interesting things to do than getting used to new UIs and whatnot when the ones I use already allow me as productive as I can with a UI.
Personally all I want is a taskbar, and an application launcher. I like the combination of openbox+tint but I a lot of the application I use depend on gnome libraries anyway.
Glossy chrome elements and wobbly windows are meaningless in terms of usability, that's my opinion. Why would we want to break something that works fine?
Why trashing old but reliable technology?
I would guess it's more about shipping a fancy glossy looking product than anything else.
Agreed but I don't think Unity is particularly pretty anyway. Big ugly text and too much purple in the default Ubuntu setup.
If bling is your thing then you can do enough with compiz and desktop themes to make pretty much any desktop look however you like.
I think making the compiz settings manager more visible and easier to use would be quite a big win here, as it's often not obvious what most of the plugins do until you activate them and the whole "resolve conflicts" thing is a total mess that needs simplifying.
Personally all I want is a taskbar, and an application launcher. I like the combination of openbox+tint but I a lot of the application I use depend on gnome libraries anyway.
Glossy chrome elements and wobbly windows are meaningless in terms of usability, that's my opinion. Why would we want to break something that works fine? Why trashing old but reliable technology?
I would guess it's more about shipping a fancy glossy looking product than anything else.