>
> Isn't this the promise of GNOME, KDE and Mac OS X? Why does this
> have to be an either/or game? Why can't one have a well-designed
> responsive desktop (a gestural interface, if you like) with access

do you think they are well-designed responsive desktop?
i don't know what responsive mean to you but for me think that takes >64MB
RAM and kills >100 MIPS CPU is exactly opposite to "responsive".

> what are we arguing about anyway? I think the subtext is that UNIX
> is hard and as such, keeps the tourists away, and Windows is easy
> but broken enough to give the morally superior among us something
> snicker about.

it's nothing wrong to make windows competitor.
i'm agains converting any unix to windows competitor.

There are place on market for well-coded OS that will be similar to
windows, had graphical user interface buy default (not add-on), and will
not require gigabyte of RAM and Ghz CPU to work quite fast and will be
stable.

i will be very happy to see that. the coder(s) may even reuse lot of code
from NetBSD like drivers.

but it should be completely separate thing - just now OS. new product - be
it commercial or free.