The impending release of Windows Vista with its fancy Aero Glass special effects, along with the hasty addition of the similar XGL and Compiz technologies to the latest SUSE Linux release, makes me think that programmers have a warped idea of what desktop computing is about.
more

Me thinks this guy makes some valid points

IMO the article is largely a rant (with phrases like "who needs stinking graphics" what else could you call it). If the writer wants a web server etc. with minimal graphics then all the tools are there for him to build one or customize to suit!

The beauty of Linux, as many have already stated, is that it gives you total control over the OS. If the latest version of Suse is too graphically intense for you, then customize it, switch distros or build your own!

Windoze of course is only ever going to allow you to make a few cosmetic changes which is why Vista will only run on newer boxes (minimum 1Gb of RAM I'm told). And it's why I wouldn't be planning to use Vista even if the price wasn't exorbitant.

I think Linux programmers are bound to include the latest technological innovations. Whether you choose to use them is up to you. And long may it be so!

Uh... isn't that important? My friend was on the edge of converting. I showed him 3ddesktop and he immedietly said, "I'm gonna switch!" One more Linux user, one more contributor to open source. And I fully agree with mikieboy. Linux is about choice. If he doesn't like the direction development is going, he can write his own programs!

At kde-lookdotorg a guy's feedback to someones theme was "why do you spend so much time customizing linux" the immediate respone from the community was "because we can"

What the author is forgetting is that you don't have to choose the intense graphics. You can just as easily choose a Linux distro with a console-only interface for another extreme, or anything else in between. With Apple and Windows, you don't have that choice.