It is by definition a toy for the nerds and freaks, and everyone knows that they have a horrible taste and no notion of aesthetics.

Horrible like a nightmare it is. I am phobic to Linux arghhh.

Can’t want to see AIR on my desktop, one of my reason to boot from time to time on Windows, just to check demos

I’m a french ubuntu user for 2 years now. I switched from Windows because I was tired to defragment my hdd, install anti virus, getting spyware, malware, adware,ware . I’m a flash flex coder, as my job, and truly love it. I do like butiful look and feel and I think that Gnome is getting older , but check what’s coming : http://www.cimitan.com/blog/2007/12/12/gtk-rgba-transparent-widgets-with-the-murrine-engine/

And trust Canonical to make the next Ubuntu LTS release a lot more than the past ones. Keep us up-to-date in April …

That’s as simple as I can say it. You cannot say Linux is ugly unless you make an effort to include other desktops. You don’t understand because you are coming from a monoculture mindset. You’ve never been part of a multicultural environment like Linux. I takes a while to learn the “language”. Say what you want comparing Gnome to Air, but you are saying nothing about Linux. Now before you label me as a Gnome firebrand, I can’t stand it. I use KDE. But your title says KDE is ugly too and I saw no mention of you trying KDE. Change one word in your title and I wouldn’t have even bothered commenting.

@Richard I only mentioned Ubuntu because it’s what I’ve been running. I’ve seen other versions of the desktop environment and I still think they’re ugly. But other people don’t, and that’s perfectly fine. I realize that a lot of the Linux community doesn’t want to see their stuff fluffed up. But I do. And I don’t think I can be totally alone on this one. And there are a lot of benefits for AIR, I’m just really exited about this one.

@Ryan Stewart
I once spent some time with a guy from Colorado. He was ugly. Everyone from Colorado is ugly. I once bought a “painting” from a art supply store. It was really ugly. All paintings are ugly. I once installed Gnome. I used the Gnome GDM. I used the Gnome workspaces. I used the Gnome menu. I used the Gnome wallpaper. I used the Gnome fonts. It was all ugly. Linux is ugly. I hope this helps you see the glaring mistake in your unfortunate choice of words in the title of this article. If not, I’ll make it clear.

Linux is a kernel. I know, I know, its become the generic term for GNU/Linux. That’s not a problem, I use it that way my self. But that doesn’t mean Linux is not the kernel. From the title of your article I expected at least some mention of the top 5 or so major desktop environments. You cannot possibly say KDE is ugly by testing Gnome. But that is exactly what you did. In fact you said ALL Linux desktop environments are ugly based solely on your experience with Gnome. If some hapless newbie reads your article, she might just put off trying “Linux” thinking it’s ugly.

Now, one more piece of information you should know about. With many Linux desktop environments like KDE, Gnome, XFce and ELive, you are given a plain default setup. Sort of like that “painting” I bought at the art supply store. It’s up to you to make it beautiful to your eyes. Yes, it takes a little time and work, but it doesn’t have to be all at once. You were given a set of tools to configure Gnome to your liking. If you failed to do that then some of the blame falls on your shoulders.

The terminal commands doesn’t convenient as GUI…

Maybe when I pass the finnal examine and attend to university,I will buy a Macbook ,

I think the great thing about AIR on Linux is if you can find enough AIR apps to manage your daily life, why bother paying for OS X or Windows when you can get all the same great apps on Linux.

Regardless, having Air apps (e.g. Thwirl) on Linux only make it that much more useful.