“Pushing user interface consistency too far isn’t good for
users, workers, or consumers–and the availability of multiple
desktop environments just might be the key to the desktop
market.”
“If you step back from KDE and GNOME just a bit, the user
interface differences resolve into a level of uniformity that I
believe is quite sufficient. The two are actually quite similar:
they’re both well-implemented variants of the well-established
windows/icons/mouse (WIMP) tradition. They’re both reasonably
compliant with user expectations about how the interface works, and
use standard keyboard shortcuts (more or less). Somebody who knows
Windows or Mac OS can learn either environment in short order.
“Sure, there are differences between KDE and GNOME, and annoying
variations from established conventions, but… they’re pretty
darned similar. So let’s go on to the big issue here. What happens
when you push user interface consistency too far?”