[bobcat62]

If the Linux faithful consider Microsoft Windows to be that bad, why do so many of these alternative environments look like they were ripped off from Microsoft?

[ShadowAce]

If the Linux faithful consider Microsoft Windows to be that bad, why do so many of these alternative environments look like they were ripped off from Microsoft?

It's not the look and feel of the environment that is bad--it's the company behind it and the technology under it that is unpleasant.

[SpaceBar]

Motif on HP/UX looked nothing like MS-Windows in the before times. Any ‘similarity’ is simply the GUI version of parallel evolutionary paths. Eyes for example have been tried different ways and re engineered numerous times in biological history. A desktop with graphical folders in a neat clean layout is a good solid time-tested paradigm, just like having legs is good for locomotion on land.