I have a feeling this is a big part of why open source projects aren't more widely used.
A part of them being open source is that a great deal of the people working on them are doing it as a hobby - because they find it interesting or fun. For a programmer, digging into a pet project (in my experience) is more of a learning experience or tinkering than a real attempt to make a usable product. There have been plenty of times myself or my colleagues have made a cool little toy without much practical use.
Honestly, I'm not intimately familiar with Gnome or KDE or Unity anymore but I have a feeling this hobbyist habit of writing code for fun leads the project astray where a commercial project (like Windows or Mac) wouldn't.
Windows for example, will have large design teams, QA teams, UX teams and managers. All of them will have a good idea of what they have to do and they're being paid to solve the problems of their customers rather than voluntarily working for fun.
Gnome and Unity on the other hand, made huge changes with (judging by the response of users) very little interaction with or consideration for their users. Sure they came up with some novel concepts but I can't sit my grandmother in front of a PC running Unity or Gnome anymore and expect her to be able to operate it. This was most definitely feasible with Gnome 2.
The opposite is true of Windows or Mac. Even Windows 8, with its pretty massive changes would be operable by someone who's used a computer in the last decade or so.
I still believe open source DEs can be successful but I think there needs to be a bigger focus on the perspective of the users and less of a focus on making a cool thing.
The 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' saying could also be applied to a lot of the things these projects have been doing.
I have a feeling this is a big part of why open source projects aren't more widely used.
A part of them being open source is that a great deal of the people working on them are doing it as a hobby - because they find it interesting or fun. For a programmer, digging into a pet project (in my experience) is more of a learning experience or tinkering than a real attempt to make a usable product. There have been plenty of times myself or my colleagues have made a cool little toy without much practical use.
Honestly, I'm not intimately familiar with Gnome or KDE or Unity anymore but I have a feeling this hobbyist habit of writing code for fun leads the project astray where a commercial project (like Windows or Mac) wouldn't.
Windows for example, will have large design teams, QA teams, UX teams and managers. All of them will have a good idea of what they have to do and they're being paid to solve the problems of their customers rather than voluntarily working for fun.
Gnome and Unity on the other hand, made huge changes with (judging by the response of users) very little interaction with or consideration for their users. Sure they came up with some novel concepts but I can't sit my grandmother in front of a PC running Unity or Gnome anymore and expect her to be able to operate it. This was most definitely feasible with Gnome 2.
The opposite is true of Windows or Mac. Even Windows 8, with its pretty massive changes would be operable by someone who's used a computer in the last decade or so.
I still believe open source DEs can be successful but I think there needs to be a bigger focus on the perspective of the users and less of a focus on making a cool thing.
The 'if it ain't broke don't fix it' saying could also be applied to a lot of the things these projects have been doing.
/semirant