Many people complain about X, and it is crufty, but I like it.
Sure, as a programmer I've seen the horror that is the result of Xlib, colormaps, and some really obscure and outdated things. But GDK abstracts that pretty well. And hey, if you can find any other graphics library with these many applications that's streamable over a network (I do use remote X sometimes, and it is great!), I'd like to see it.
Many people
complain about no
standard widget library or
window manager. These people are truly
clueless. That's the beauty of X! It only does
graphics. It's an
independent network protocol. It's a
foundation.
Build on it. Use whatever
window manager you like. If you want something
slim, use
wm2. If you want a
swiss army chainsaw bloat thingy that looks
reel purty, use
enlightenment. If you want something
in between, there's
WindowMaker. If you like
C++,
code for
KDE. If you want
C, code for
GTK+. If you want
commercial UNIX, code for
Motif. If you've got a thing for
Objective C, code for
GNUstep. Do you really want somebody like
Microsoft telling you how to manage your
windows, what your
widget API is like, et cetera?
As for all this talk of desktop shit, I don't care about that. My computer is used as a workstation, not a desktop. It's running fvwm2 for chrissake.
So, if you complain about X,
shame on you. Most people who do are
ignorant (the word "
slashbot" comes to mind). The people with
valid points, there are some, and I agree with them in part, but hey, use what works!