Mac lovers hurting the Linux desktop?

I had to laugh when I read The Register's title of a recent post:

Mono man accuses Mac Gtk+ fans of jeopardizing Linux desktop

Umm...I don't think the Linux desktop faces any real threat from a group of developers advocating for change. I'm not sure a group of Mac fans could possibly do the Linux desktop more harm than it has done to itself. The Linux desktop is already in serious jeopardy, and it has nothing to do with which developer kit people use to build it, or changes to Gtk+. Miguel de Icaza disagrees:

According to de Icaza, developers working for Gtk+ specialist Imendio pushing the proposal have "given up on the Linux/Gnome desktop." Having switched to Apple's OS X as their main desktop, they are focused on source code compiling to Macs with some changes, instead.

The Linux desktop isn't broken, per se, but it needs a shot in the arm. Miguel is concerned about what a shift away from Gtk+ will do to the ISV ecosystem. What ecosystem? Novell, Red Hat, and...?

Miguel's larger point - "Let's all stick together because it's hard enough work as it is" - is a valid one. And he's right that the communication/process needs to be better before heading off in a markedly new direction. I'm just not sure he's choosing to rally around the right flag. The Linux desktop community needs to do something different. Perhaps it's this?

[mcasters]

Matt, what's with all the meta-blogging and Linux attacks lately?
I've been very happy with my (high end) laptop ever since I switched to Linux from XP more than a year ago. What "shot in the arm" are you talking about? What is preventing me from doing my job anyway? Since when is Miguel 'I sold my soul to Microsoft" de Icaza relevant in this discussion anyway. Do you have any answers or did I just reply to a troll?
The only interesting observation I'm making is that more and more, servers and desktops are no longer compared to Windows. IMHO, Linux is rapidly becoming the reference point.

[all-usernames-in-use]

The main concern seems to be commercial development-style leakage into the open source development system. Imendio has a bunch of developers who are getting paid to do cool stuff and want to make revolutionary changes. But as we've seen with KDE 4, this sort of revolutionary development can divide communities (especially if Imendio eventually drops developer support) and makes community involvement harder as documentation and community support need time to catch up. In short, open source tools need the community to survive. Imendio are saying, "screw that, we can do cool stuff however we want, because we're actually paid to care."

[dneary]

Matt,

Here's a short list of GNOME third party developers invested in the current GNOME platform. Maybe you've heard of some of them?

Eclipse
Firefox
OpenOffice.org
Abiword
Gnumeric
GIMP
Inkscape
GnuCash
Pidgin

I don't know why people forget that the most significant consumers of the GNOME platform are free software applications that aren't part of GNOME...

And there are even a few commercial applications invested in GNOME:

Adobe Acrobat Reader
VMWare Player
Real Networks HelixPlayer
IBM - Lotus Notes, Symphony

And that's of course not counting all those little vertical apps that Novell, IBM, RedHat and others have "ported" from Windows to GTK+/GNOME so that they run nicely on Linux. What was that statistic? 82% of statistics are made up on the spot? Oh no - the other one: between 70% and 80% of software development is on software which is not for sale - in-house software. And people switching to GNOME on the desktop have lots of it.

Dave.

[MSSlayer]

Sometimes you post really insightful, intelligent articles. Some times, like this one you post total idiocy.

You don't use Linux, you don't know Linux so any claim by you that the desktop is 'broken' is the same thing as Ballmer calling the GPL viral.

@mcasters
Blogging is a bad enough term but meta-blogging? That is as retarded as Bloghers

[Papa Chango]

I actually prefer reading Enderle's delusional comments because of who he is and at least he has the decency to create a whole universe and reasonings.

People see the word Open next to your name and think you have any credibility or knowledge to talk about Linux when youre one step away from being as clueless as Don Reisinger.

I'd call you a retard but that could be insulting to special people around the country, so Ill settle on "hack'.

My biggest complaint is always the same: You knock Icaza without explaining why to then veer into the desktop red herring hoping people would change topics with you.
That's a cowardly trait that seems to follow all your writing. You gave an opinion but dont say why, give reasons or bother explaining.
Too cool for school or too mentally weak to formulate a real opinion about the GTK references Icaza made? (and I am far from being a Miguel nuthugger)

I dont mind reading people's opinion even if I dont abide by them. I despise people like you who pull the bait and switch.

Refuting Icaza's statement with "and it has nothing to do" is NOT acceptable.