Comment 50 for bug 882274

> As a point of reference, Windows 8's Metro user interface is going to
> provide a "Windows Classic" workspace for backwards compatibility. This is
> an area that Microsoft has consistently gotten right over the years...

Why do we always point to Microsoft and Apple as if they're somehow a
reference implementation of great UI design that we just need to copy? There
is *no* point in trying to replicate what Microsoft and Apple have done:
Almost nobody who is happy with Windows or OS X is going to switch to Ubuntu
unless Ubuntu is substantially better in some way.

Ubuntu's default UI needs to design for its strengths, rather than trying to
compete on MS and Apple's home turf. Those strengths are:

1. (GNU/)Linux
2. The community

So, the default Unity launcher could have icons for:

1. Terminal
2. Connect via IRC to #ubuntu

Instead, Unity (along with every other desktop Linux project) takes the best
CLI in the world...and hides it.

Instead of designing a dead-end UI exclusively for novice users---something
that Microsoft and Apple already do reasonably well---why not focus on:

1. Designing for power users
2. Making it easy for novices to become power users
3. Avoiding wasting users' time

Nobody does that well today, but Ubuntu could probably pull it off, and it
would be *huge* step for education, for computer literacy in general, for
software freedom, and toward getting rid of things like software patents,
ACTA, and the DMCA, since those issues affect power users most directly.