I think linux developers should do a better job using GUI interfaces in there operating systems. Looking around at the Linux screenshots, and how the desktop looks is well....monotonous. They all look the same. The ones that don't usually cost money, like Linspire, or Xandros.
What are your opinions on this?

They look the same because they generally use the same desktop environment. Like KDE or Gnome.

yea, but you can still make toolbars, and menus using the desktop enviroments.

You can configure the appearance of your desktop--both in Gnome and KDE (KDE is easier to customize and seems to have more options). Don't like the appearance? ---change it.

figures, i have gnome.

So get KDE...

I will....

Don't judge Linux by the GUI. The GUI is independent of the OS.

At the moment, Gnome and KDE are the most popular, but there lots of others that can run on Linux. Here's one site that lists most of common ones: http://xwinman.org/

Linux is about choices. One can chose to run KDE or Gnome or Xfce or Fluxbox or whatever. You can chose not to run a GUI at all.

Try Xfce 4.4, I was pleasantly surprised by the changes from 4.2 -> 4.4. KDE is a little heavy for my taste, and not as 'fun' if you will.
But to each their own! That's the power and elegance of Linux, CHOICE, including the choice to choose.

I used both the GUI and command line almost
equally. But, in my opinion the command line does certain tasks faster. For example, if I wanted to
bring down my network card down temporary, as root
I'll type ifconfig eth0 down, whereas in the GUI, you have to search within the menus for network interfaces settings, open the program, search for a button to to bring down the interface.

I agree that people SHOULDN'T judge Linux by the GUI but the fact remains that people do. While I also agree that the GUI is independent of the OS most people can't make that distinction.

People who are looking to try Linux will get a live CD and boot it up and start navigating around the UI stuff (menus, desktop applets, toolbars, applications, etc.). That will be their impression.

Let's face it, people are visual and like shiny flashy things, I can't even count the number of people that are actually impressed with the superfluous Windoze Vista "wow"s. While I'm a command line person myself I have to admit that GUI matters a lot. Just take a look at the winners of the LinuxQuestions.org Members Choice Awards. Many of them are UI wrapper applications for things that were perfectly doable with command line utils (K3b, Keno, Eclipse).

While I don't think Linux NEEDS to be more graphical, it couldn't really hurt. I think the key is that Linux shouldn't REQUIRE a GUI. Everything that can be done by the UI should be doable without the UI. That's the thing that I think makes it perfect for the power user as well as the typical computer user.

The problem with folks coming into Linux that have only winsuks experience is that they don't realize that Linux is a BIY-OS (BUILD IT YOURSELF!!!) platform. If you want to be 'bottle fed' go back to M$ products and quit Linux. Linux gives the USER control of the OS, not a 'big brother' to lead you by the hand into laa laa land...
LEARN HOW TO PROGRAM, LEARN HOW TO WORK GRAPHICS, READ THE MANUALS (online or installed with the OS) and please...PLEASE!!! QUIT trying to make Linux into WINDOZE!!!

And the people working on the FOSS DEs/WMs are not (only) Linux developers. Their applications "also" work on Linux. And personally I'd prefer better command line interfaces (i.e. curses based + gpm support or what not).

P.S.: @ masterofNanako:

Another problem with "folks coming into Linux that have only winsuks experience" is that they feel the need to bash Microsoft and or Windows with every single occasion. Although it may sound cool and look cool and make you feel cool.. it doesn't/shouldn't. It gets tiring for more seasoned users to read 100 rants/day about Windows spelled in all ways possible except the right way ("winsuck" "windoze" etc). To 99 of these rants, the simple reply "Give 5 good reasons why Windows is not worth it"; would remain unanswered by the author of the "original" rant.

As far as desktops go I've never seen an OS that did a better job of giving you control over how your desktop looks. A lot of this thread so far appears to deal more with how everyone tends to set their desktop up the same way. In that case if it isn't broke don't fix it.

The COMMANDLINE. That's how I was attracted to linux. I used a unix shell account back in the early 90's. It was cool.