Look at how SLOWLY other desktop systems changed vs. Gnome.
For example, is OS X substantially different now than it was 10 years ago? Not that much - same menu bar, dock, etc.
Similarly, Windows isn't that different since Windows 95 - start "thing", task bar, etc.
Compare this to desktop Unix. You have lots of choices for everything, and things tend not to have a mismatch of interface metaphors, or will change each version. If it's all going to change or be tweaked, nobody has a chance to catch up.
Also, OS X tended to attract people who were using Unix on the desktop very quickly - back the early 2000's your likelyhood of having a PC laptop that would come out of sleep properly when running Linux was very hit or miss. OS X machines (PPC at the time) worked nearly flawlessly. This alone brought so many people over that it isn't even funny.
The weird thing is that Unix tends to be decently consistent on the CLI. Most of the time, a -r will get you recursive behavior, and a -v will get you verbose mode. Not so on the desktop...
For example, is OS X substantially different now than it was 10 years ago? Not that much - same menu bar, dock, etc.
Similarly, Windows isn't that different since Windows 95 - start "thing", task bar, etc.
Compare this to desktop Unix. You have lots of choices for everything, and things tend not to have a mismatch of interface metaphors, or will change each version. If it's all going to change or be tweaked, nobody has a chance to catch up.
Also, OS X tended to attract people who were using Unix on the desktop very quickly - back the early 2000's your likelyhood of having a PC laptop that would come out of sleep properly when running Linux was very hit or miss. OS X machines (PPC at the time) worked nearly flawlessly. This alone brought so many people over that it isn't even funny.
The weird thing is that Unix tends to be decently consistent on the CLI. Most of the time, a -r will get you recursive behavior, and a -v will get you verbose mode. Not so on the desktop...