[simonh]

I have a theory. There's a much weaker positive feedback loop. If a commercial product is nicer looking and easier to use, more people will buy it so there's more money to fund development. Management will demand redesigns and improvements because that creates more revenue.

With open source, the feedback loop from users to developers is much weaker because it's not powered by money. It turns out changes in cash flow are a valuable signaling mechanism. I think this is an issue with many aspects of Open Source development, not just UI.

I'm not in any way saying this is an unresolvable issue or that it dooms OS projects, or anything like that. I just think it's a factor.