On the open source side, feature creep and lack of design direction. On the commercial side, the internet + desire to squeeze in as much advertising/profits as

On the open source side, feature creep and lack of design direction. On the commercial side, the internet + desire to squeeze in as much advertising/profits as possible. It is definitely still possible to have a desktop that looks and behaves like this on Linux, if you use a minimalistic window manager and apps (dwm, xmonad, open box, the suckless apps, etc). I've been doing this for a while, it makes the computing experience much nicer IMO.