What's going on here?

• In August of 1998, I happened across www.themes.org

  • My jaw dropped when I realized these were X screen shots
  • I thought our child was dead...
  • I was mostly using Windows to get my job done

• My first reaction: Why should I believe that X could ever catch up to Microsoft Windows, given X had lain fallow for 5 years?

  • Not obvious that it could...
  • If it couldn't, why worry about it?

• It took me a long time to believe X could catch up again

  • It will take another couple years...
  • And required revisiting many old presumptions on how the world works...