Isn't this a bit of a non-sequitur? The desktop environments could have been made coherent regardless of the underlying window system. Indeed, I think you cou

Isn't this a bit of a non-sequitur? The desktop environments could have been made coherent regardless of the underlying window system. Indeed, I think you could say that there were many coherent desktop environments in the past. Catch comes from the fact that there were a ton of competing ideas. With no clear reason to want one over the other. Apple rapidly evolved their GUI because they are trying to support just the one. And, frankly, they are starting to buckle on the idea that they are fully coherent.