I probably shouldn’t get involved in discussions like this one, because they’re usually the ones that make me wonder if my ideas are out of whack.
But any thread that asks why so many people choose ugly or text-based interfaces needs at least one dissenting opinion.
I won’t waste time repeating what I said there, except to underscore that without the freedom that Linux offers, the whole planet would have a grand number of two, maybe three choices for their GUI.
Whether or not it’s ugly or out of date or text-based or pointer-based or driven by the electrodes taped to your skull … I could care less. Do what you like to your interface, because it’s yours.
The only person who has to suffer through it, is you. š
And before some wag shouts it out, yes, I know, pretty is a feature. And there is nothing to be inferred in my preference for a text interface. Your way is the right way.
P.S.: You can link to an awful CDE desktop or Windows BOB if you want, but I can guarantee someone out there on the planet thinks those are quite attractive. Humans are weird that way. š
Motho ke motho ka botho 
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2005/07/a-tribute-to-the-windows-31-hot-dog-stand-color-scheme.html
^– this.
Aw, but somebody somewhere feels sad to think they can’t get that on their Windows 7 desktop. …
Yeah. I find the photons are stabbing my eyes and blinding them, but someone likes it.
The beautiful thing about Linux is choice. ANyone can have a terminal, shiny OS X clone, minialist Fluxbox desktop, default GNOME, blinding KDE desktop… that’s what I love.
I remember Hot Dog Stand was ugly even in monochrome.
I have to agree. There are no ugly UI. There are bad, good, and not so good. But ugly… to each their own.
Didn’t puppy linux use that ‘style’ in one of their releases?
I was going to say something, but as a fan of Twm, what do I know?
I am a big fan of no menus or borders, so I usually opt for musca and usually take out the menus from opera which is my gui browser, so that I only have the adress field, so for me a good ui is a minimal one, but then again there are other people think otherwise, that’s the nice thing about uis, that they are so personal š
The people who say things like that about a text-based interface haven’t used one properly. I wish I could do all my work from the command line (even though I post so many shameless bling desktops at UF).
I have spent some years of my life tuning and tweaking, looking for icons, effects, wallpapers… I even created some myself and spent a lot of time on the process, either trying to be original, or copying the best of the best.
When I was on the verge of having the most beautiful Desktop on earth…well, then something new came in my way, and it became my new goal. Windows moving, transparent borders, fancy colors… All of them get old and uncool after some time because that’s not beauty, that’s marketing, and it works like that because no one can describe beauty (lots of philosophers tried hard, though) but, in the name of beauty, people tend to spend money, and everybody can describe money.
Now, tired of looking for “that” beauty (which I almost got, thanks to Linux and its freedom) I can concentrate on using my computer.
For God’s shake! I even found the time to write this huge comment!
There are many objectively hideous user interfaces out there. I’m not even talking about Bob or Hotdog stand. Oh, no. Behold the horror:
http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Screenshots.php
I’m sure I’ve seen stuff even worse than that once upon a time, but I’m not able to locate it right now.