I hate to say this, but I feel like the only way we'll ever have a popular and coherent linux desktop is if some large company found it worth their while to con

I hate to say this, but I feel like the only way we'll ever have a popular and coherent linux desktop is if some large company found it worth their while to consolidate all of this (and actually had the muscle/influence to get people to go along). (I guess you could kind of say that's what happened with Android -- though obviously for mobile and not really in the right spirit). The current linux user-space reminds me of like feudal Europe or something, the idea of anything important coming out of all the bickering just seems like a lost cause. It's forever doomed to be just-usable-enough but never in any way that it'll gain any sort of adoption.