[jamesu]

My impression is that the problem is more fundamental: a lot of open source and free software which finds its way onto linux is made by people who don't seem to care about the end-user experience. If it works for them, there is no need to improve it.

Not all open software projects are receptive to changes, improvements or bug reports from strangers so nothing is really resolved without forking by which adds its own complications.

Of course there is still good open source / free software. It's just hard to come by.

[tikhonj]

Even more proprietary software that doesn't make it to Linux is written by people who don't seem to care about the end-user experience. I've spent enough time battling horrible programs on both OS X and various versions of Windows to know that this isn't unique to open source software.

Of course, on the proprietary platforms, the core programs--browsers, office, media...etc are all good. But that is true of Linux programs as well. And open source projects--even ones that are not terribly responsive--are still more responsive than most proprietary programs.

[cs702]

I disagree. The main problem is that the Linux desktop doesn't (yet?) have a large, fast-growing installed base, so mass commercial developers don't target it!