I'm not really a software developer, no. Of course, the kernel and libc are not enough. There are de facto standard libraries for all other subsystems, with va

I'm not really a software developer, no. Of course, the kernel and libc are not enough. There are de facto standard libraries for all other subsystems, with variations and granularity in different areas (e.g. that of the largely one display server to the many types of widget toolkits), not unlike any other OS. The package manager is simply an effective way of controlling software installations with fine-grained control from curated repositories with dependency resolution and querying capabilities. Just about all systems have package management in some way, but not the full picture. Windows had the Windows Installer, which was the equivalent to dpkg, without the advanced frontend dependency resolver and other mechanisms. I understand there is now a Windows Store. Yes, there are issues, largely intrinsic to shared library versioning and maintenance. Windows has them and it too had to supply hideous workarounds (WinSxS, etc.), with privately shipped DLLs still being a standard practice to get around it. Concerning usability, you already do have environments that are fully compliant with the "standard" metric that most people "benefit" from -- there are highly sophisticated DEs such as GNOME 3 and Unity that are perfectly usable by average end users, and I have personally installed and attested the results to this from several friends and acquaintances who are non-technical. At least a couple are even fine with using Cinnamon.