[doronba]

That is reasonable, albeit something i regret at times.

I have many friends who develop open source software but resist Linux. I have been working on Linux desktop for some years, but at times it is irritating to no end, especially in the realm of design. I often advocate for Linux, but it is still messy, it is not for everyone.

interface design seems to be a real problem for open source apps, few manage to get it polished enough, and mostly on web apps, not on the desktop.

I used KDE for years, and switched to Gnome when KDE 4 was too messy to deal with. now that KDE 4.4 i think ii might give it a try, but from online video i wasn't too impressed

[ThinkWriteMute]

I think the real problem with Linux ui/ux design spawns from the X Server. It's old and decrepit, levied in aged development standards, and guarded by a bunch of grognards who fear change.

[vilya]

Absolutely untrue. The X server is an orthogonal issue to UI design. The real problem is that a lot of Linux apps still have GUIs designed by programmers rather than UI designers.

[sireat]

In fact, how many open source apps have dedicated UI designers? Probably Mozilla stack, but who else?

Even very popular OS apps, such as GIMP, Inkscape, Open Office have questionable design.

Granted sometimes UI designer can misunderstand user experience in a particular domain, but programmers are more apt to do so.

Disclaimer: I program and sadly, also design(not by choice, I can't really design) UIs on Linux.

[doronba]

can good open source interface design be achieved? and if so how?

I agree with this, it has nothing to do with X. this has to do with design choices, and the method in which the consensus is achieved.

My friend Mushon Zer-Aviv is attempting to tackle this issue

http://www.mushon.com/2009/12/18/shortaudio-my-open-source-d...