> I was at a local LUG meeting today and was very distressed that the above
> view
> should be expressed, and forcefully.  I found it distressing because that
> is
> quite some allegation - that we and Mate users and Cinnamon users etc.,
> (all
> splinter groups) are actually damaging Linux, doing it harm.
>
> The fact that we are free to digress and disagree is why I like open
> source so
> much.  Take away that freedom and we might as well all use Windows.  It
> seemed to me a quite extraordinary allegation.  And as I say, I found it
> personally upsetting.
>
> Since Linux without its freedom would not be Linux, nothing would seem to
> me
> more terminally harmful to Linux than to destroy that freedom.
>
> I am a congenital maverick.  I claim the right to remain a maverick and to
> swim against the tide as much as I like!
>
> Lisi

My take on this is that we are observing the first major split between
producers and consumers in the computing market.  Prior to the iPhone and
similar devices, both consumers and producers had to use the same hardware
and software for their disparate tasks.  Now that hardware has become
smaller and software more powerful, consumers can for the first time use a
"computer" that functions more or less like a video game--i.e. it is "easy
to use", "pretty", "simple", it "connects people together", etc. 
Producers on the other hand will continue to demand more and more power to
fuel their increasingly complex tasks and meet their wall clock deadlines.

I have had comments from people who "got used to" KDE4 and Unity, and when
they tried TDE again years later, they found that they were vastly more
productive in a tasks accomplished vs. hours spent metric.

Consumers will always outnumber producers, therefore they will always have
the largest vote.  Producers on the other hand know what they need and
will pay lots of $$$ to get it, even as the software they require becomes
more and more of a niche item.  TDE is one of the few projects that can
continue to satisfy those needs, and in reality it will have very little
impact on the consumer market for Linux.

Just my $0.02. :-)

Tim