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Fed Up With the State of Linux

Fed Up With the State of Linux

In terms of the underlying kernel and frameworks, Linux is more robust and supports more technologies than it ever has before.  There has never been a better time to be using Linux...
On a server perhaps, where a low cost stable and flexible operating system like Linux absolutely shines.  But The fact of the matter is, the Linux desktop is in an utterly abysmal state right now, and given the sheer amount of division within the GNOME camp, let alone the ludicrous number of other desktops and barely functional window managers, there is no solution in sight.
GNOME 3 was officially released in April of 2011 and ever since, Ive found myself, along with thousands of long time Linux users, a refugee, forced from my homeland (the venerable GNOME 2.30) and have not been a happy Linux user since.  Ive turned to booting into OSX for the vast majority of my day to day computing activities, and even Windows 8, "modern" warts and all has managed to charm its way into my heart.  And in the interest of full disclosure, for the most part I couldnt be happier.
The Ubuntu 12.04 partition on my desktop hasnt been booted into in months, since there is virtually nothing that Linux is capable of providing that cant be accomplished with OSX and MacPorts.  For everything else, there is always VirtualBox. 
The problem as I see it, is that when GNOME was planning the next version of their desktop, their vision did not mesh well with Canonicals plans to force feed Linux to the unwitting masses and thus Unity was born.  Nobody wins, because both desktops suck to put it bluntly.  They are bloated, awkward, clunky and unconfigurable.
Sure, it could be argued that neither Windows or OSX are terribly configurable either.  And while that is somewhat true, the argument is an invalid one considering neither desktop were built on a legacy of customizability.  The Linux desktop on the other hand, was.  And ever since the release of GNOME 3, there has been a flood of conflicting and usually redundant effort to address the issues with GNOME 3 and its awkward interface and lack of configurability.  The sheer number of GNOME 3 based desktops at the moment is indicative of a very unhappy community of users and developers.  I mean honestly, Shell, Unity, Classic, MATE (stupid name!!!), Cinnamon, Pantheon, Consort... Things have gotten entirely out of hand.
In retrospect, when KDE4 first came out in 2007, it was an absolute disaster, but by the end of 2010, it had developed into a singular fantastic, albeit resource hungry desktop.  And somehow KDE4 managed to do so without splitting into a half dozen side projects.  Unfortunately, in that same span of time since GNOME 3 was released, the division between the various forks is the only thing that has steadily developed, with zero improvement on any particular front.  Unity has gotten MORE resource intensive, not less.  The fallback session is still as clunky as it was three years ago, and no effort whatsoever has been made to add configuration options to Shell.  And dont get me started on MATE... It doesnt work on so many levels.  I am used to GNOME, so when I hit alt+f2 and type in gnome-terminal and then nothing happens, my desktop is effectively broken.  And why the hell is it called MATE?  Named after a bitter, unfiltered tea consumed primarily in Central/South America, MATE violates the long standing naming convention of using acronyms (eg; GNOME = GNU Network Object Model Environment, KDE = K Desktop Environment, XFCE = X-Forms Common Environment, etc.).  It may look deceptively similar to GNOME 2.30, but it is, in my eyes so thoroughly broken that it is completely unusable.  I dont want to use "pluma" i want to use gedit, dammit!  And Cinnamon is a completely unnecessary waste of time and resources that offers absolutely nothing that the fallback session doesnt, and it eats up massive system resources in the process.
My chief complaint though, is and always will be the fact that on both Shell and Unity, you cant even move the dock.  Even Windows and OSX allow you to do that!  Not only can the dock not be moved, but both Canonical as well as the upstream GNOME devs have actively worked against community efforts to add the ability to customize your desktop in any way.   You cant even change your GTK, Metacity or Icon theme without installing hackish third party tools like Ubuntu Tweak.  So unless you really like the default theme, eg; Adwaita, Ambience/Radiance, youre SOL my friend.  Im sorry, but that is simply not an acceptable solution for me.  This is not the operating system I came to know and love, and I expected better from Linux (insert canned response "You should ask for a refund" here).  And thus taking the advice from one of the members of the Ubuntu Forums, I will be "voting with my feet".  Im zeroing out my Linux partitions and reclaiming their valuable hard drive space to be used by more functional operating systems.  Goodbye, and good luck.  Hopefully GNOME eventually matures beyond this adolescent phase where it has to be "different" for the sake of being different, common sense be damned!  I am reminded of all the angst-ridden, socially awkward, teenage Goth/Emo/Juggalo douche-bag idiots who loiter around Hot Topic stores in the mall and listen to God-awful music to prove to the world that theyre "different".  Just remember, Hot Topic is owned by the GAP, and in reality no one cares how cool you think you are.  What matters is what you can bring to the table, and right now the Linux desktop is not offering anything worthwhile. 
GNOME is a complete and total disaster right now, and there is no sane and rational solution in sight. 
KDE is slow, bloated, and its software selection sucks compared to GNOME.  Despite all of its configurability it is still less aesthetically pleasing than any GTK based desktop.  This is a matter of opinion, but I really dont care for the Oxygen theme at all, and all other themes are just plain ugly.
XFCE is like GNOME 2s pimply faced ugly younger cousin.  Not only that, but over the years it has lost its allure of being a fast, lightweight DE.  Its performance is only marginally better than GNOME.
LXDE, along with all of the *box and *WM DEs (E17 included), is nothing more than the lowest common denominator in the graphical user interface, lagging decades behind the rest of the computing world.  I refuse to sacrifice usability and functionality in favor of speed.

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