first of all it's ZogG, second of all. i liked hal very much (moving to udev, as i moved to new xorg). but the point is not about mess or not. the point is that distro giving you configuration he decides what is the best for you. and if you are noobie - you are getting used for it as it given and it becomes the standart (yes everything is the matter of what you are used too, as only moved too linux i tried to find programs that look like ones i used in windows(winamp, bsplayer), but now i think that xmms2/mpd, mplayer(without gui) are much easier to use. most of people that are searching for usefriednly OS like ubuntu would probably stick to default programs. even the firefox has it's default homepage with search. and so this politic are very simuliar with apple ( i don't like their politics too) . and yes sometimes it's messy to change for example from gnome to kde (as most of ubuntu software are gtk and some of them are deeply builtin OS) and yes you can say that there is kubuntu - but why would you use different os if only the difference is DE/WM. I'm just saying the point of the linux was not only opensource and free software but also modulation ( that things work together but not depend on each other and if something goes wrong it wouldn't stuck all the system) also the choice - you don't like something - change it to something else or even make your own way. you actually understand what's going on your computer and it works how you want it to. and if not - i don't see any difference with windows - except it's free and opensource.