I'm a different data point. I've used nothing but Windows (98, XP and now 7) for over a decade. Lately I've been learning web development (Django) and realized

I'm a different data point. I've used nothing but Windows (98, XP and now 7) for over a decade. Lately I've been learning web development (Django) and realized a few weeks ago that to really do this right I needed to do linux. So I used VMware/bitnami to set up a VM with linux/python/django. It was Ubuntu 12.04 without the desktop. Very hard to get around with the command line so I installed the unity desktop. Bingo. Very easy for someone used to Windows. I couple minor quirks but I didn't find that any of the above issues bothered me. I have had issues. But these have been things like figuring out where to set environment variables, learning the bare command line basics, learning how to get postgres going locally, etc. Nothing to do with the desktop, except for the fact that it doesn't provide an interface for everything that can possibly be done with command line - so as (someone learning to be) a developer, I've had to learn all the command line stuff anyway. I have no idea whether other desktops are easier. All I can say is that the command line had a steep learning curve, while unity desktop took just a few minutes to get started and I was off working.