The winds were already changing for PCs before then. Compiz and Beryl had been out for a good few years and really showed off what desktop compositing could do.

The winds were already changing for PCs before then. Compiz and Beryl had been out for a good few years and really showed off what desktop compositing could do. Then Windows Vista was released and, putting popular opinions aside for one moment, visually it looked next generation compared to XP. So it’s only natural that the leading two FOSS desktop environments follow suit. iOS certainly would have helped fuel the change too but you could see this trend in desktop UX even before the first iPhone was announced.