Jim Zemlin (the Executive Director of the Linux Foundation ) wrote a good critical piece on Linux.com about the shortcomings of current Linux offerings.

You're right we should make our own slate and design a brand new shiny UI with multi-touch, who's in?

Actually that sounds really fun, however impossibly hard, time consuming, and expensive it may be in reality. I'll let the big companies deal with bringing the magic, I'm just here to enjoy it and possibly help make it better with plenty of commentary.

I think that is very wise indeed. As a 'normal user' I've stayed away from all things linux thinking it was far too complex for me. N900 has convinced me otherwise: for the ordinary user, provided we get continue to stock extras and ovi, there would be no need to do anything with n900 beyond the user interface (yes, I know, one might choose to). And n900 does work like magic, apart from a few features which are still being worked on.

I'm still a little unconvinced whether I'd ant ubuntu on a device I make a lot of use of because it has that 'too complicated' assoication in my head.

I think Maemo is doing well with its current focus on UI - that's where Apple really, really excels. You need more bears in the system to say "That's easy" or "That's clunky" about the UI.

The problem extends well beyond the UI. One of the reasons that many netbooks are moving to Windows is because the perception of consumers who were used to Windows on laptops and desktops was that Linux was cheap in the sense of low priced but also limited because of that. There are many Linux apps that have a UI which can best be described as bare bones. There are many others that are or look unfinished. Few (relatively speaking) are polished, much less magic. This is most apparent in the gaming arena. There is nothing I have found in the Linux world to compare to the current class of Windows games such as Dragon Age Origins or even leading Windows games from several years ago.

I would see the problem as stemming from the FOSS model. Unfortunately, UI development is boring and time consuming. Commercial vendors can devote resources to it in anticipation of recouping their investment in sales. Independent programmers have to be self-motivated. Of the efforts mentioned in the original article, I would see Android as by far the most significant, not because of the OS's UI but because it is attracting commercial development through the app store.

whats basically needed is a massive press event where someone walks up on stage and shows people exactly what they can use product X for, in a step by step manner, without it being a out and out training session.

Great article... and I agree with tso.

Perhaps Mark Shuttleworth could perform this function? He had a lot to say about this recently.

The only thing Linux really suffers from is the effective FUD campaigning of competitors.

Linux as a technology is very competitive. It's the implementation of it that needs to catch up. The software needs to be organized around the hardware and tightly coupled to services. That's what Apple is. The iphone/ipad, the iphone os, and itunes + Apple app store. It's all integrated, that's the magic. I can't see anything inherently preventing Google/nexus/Android or Nokia/n-series/OVI from surpassing Apple in this regard. They have the resources, they just need the direction.

Good article. Nokia heard this rant a few years back (and oft-times on this forum). They've made progress, wonder what will be next...