> >Yes, but the last 20 years consisted primarily of a closed
> source culture.
> >When the burden of maintenance is placed on a relatively small group of
> >developers, the cost is prohibitive.  Not so in open source where the
> >developer and consumer can be one individual.  In this regard, I
> think the
> >next 20 years will be much more interesting.
>
> With all due respect, this view is somewhat naive, and it ignores
> some important history.  (1) The culture in question derives
> primarily from precisely the group of people who gave us Squeak, and
> its a pretty damned useful culture; but more important (2) it arose
> from a land of user interface chaos, which hurt both developer and
> user.

Andrew,

Have you looked at http://www.skinz.org?  It contains alternative UIs to a
growing list of almost 50 popular applications.  And (according to Alexa)
it's an extremely popular web site.

As for your arguments 1 & 2, I just don't know if the culture they
envisioned was one of closed source, with roles divided between programmer
and developer.  I believe what they envisioned (I could be wrong), was
communities of people using computers as a medium for a higher level of
communication (mind amplification).  That has not been realized.

UIs (graphical, 3D and otherwise) are an extrememly important part of
realizing this ultimate goal...extrememly.  It's *very* important that a lot
of people start doing a lot of things, especially with the UI.  First, it's
nifty scroll bars, later, it will be advanced ways of visualizing real world
objects.

It's the whole point (to borrow words).

- Stephen