I am not quite sure in whose hands the development should be left, but the fact remains that change - while not always going in the direction of true progress - is necessary for any advancement at all. Its absence would have left us with such wonderful UIs as that shipped with the Commodore 64... effective, but hardly sufficient or efficient! It can take many iterations, including down what may turn out to be false pathways, before true progress can be identified.

A couple of examples may help to illustrate my point. The AmigaOS had what I consider still to be the best combination of GUI and shell we have ever had - the scripting was extremely powerful (especially after ARexx was added to it) - but more accessible than any CLI I can think of currently in general use. Linux at least shares the ability to run any program from either interface - but I have seen nothing similar to the abilities to control one program from another that were so accessible on the Amiga. But that branch died out.

Then Linux arrived, giving the experimenter somewhere to go. Its mandate to 'be' Unix-like constricted it somewhat, but look at the variety of user experiences you can find now! I certainly think that somewhere the best interface will eventually arise in this 'marketplace'. Unity is a great example, by the way, of the fact that many of the interfaces are NOT in the hands of developers in the sense of this article - they are in the hands of the corporate sponsors of the interface. And, surprisingly enough, it is becoming quite capable - and may well be heading in a good direction. Certainly the workflow you can construct is very efficient if you take the time to try it thoroughly. (it may currently be oversimplified, but it IS capable, and easy to learn if coming at it without 'it should be this way' dominating your responses). Yet, even though NOT developed without direction, it gets more 'charges' of arrogance and stupidity than most - almost as if were Metro!

Of course perfection will not be attained until the DWIM command set becomes the standard UI for all 'enabled' devices - yes, that stands for 'Do What I Mean' - the dream ever since WIMP interfaces and voice command were first proposed.

Until then, I intend to embrace diversity - and to keep trying until *I* get it right too!