> > If "we" want increase the number of outsiders to be part of the
> ecosystem, then do it on our terms
>
> :-)
>
> You can't do it *all *on your terms. Because nobody would come at all. But
> you can have what's important to you.

Not true :-) Exhibit 1A: RMS. He has his supporters. You may
quibble about their numbers, but you just wrote nobody :-). And
I care about the dedication and abilities of the community
members, not the absolute numbers.

I think this is contagion from the corporate world. For a
company, be it Apple or Canonical, sheer numbers matter,
as their accountants believe that each user equals some
dollar value.

A community is different, the value of a person is the
contribution they make. Thus writing a desktop which hides
everything from the users is a loss - a novice will never
graduate to being a contributer. Themable/customisable desktops
are one of the quickest, easiest ways of getting the novice
interested in the internals - showing them the possibility
that the system could be theirs.

regards

marc