There is far more than your list to gripe about.

*) Titlebar height? How about we ditch the heavy handed double bold screaming title type? I imagine they are looking at bumping it up a few more points in the name of blind usability. If elegant had a face, it probably isn’t George Foreman’s after a title bout.

*) The win deco boxes. If there is one thing that screams louder than the red, yellow, and green gems of Apple it’s the boxy blockness of Microsoft decorations.

*) The new wallpaper is the most recent in a long, long, long lineage of ‘must be neutral’, ‘must be dark in the top left corner’, ‘must be monochromatic’, etc. Perfect symmetry speaks one thing and one thing only – no, it’s not ‘harmony’ or ‘balance’ – it’s hobby composition.

*) Palette? Dropper swab all of those tones. Chalk one up for zero concept and zero audience. Chalk another up for a blatant disregard of emotional connection. Finally, chalk up the killing blow for even a remote sense of colour harmony.

*) Finally, if we look at the separate parts, where is the continuity? From logon to GDM to desktop, it’s a nasty hodge-podge of appearances. Looks like ants went out hunting and brought back discreet components from several picnics…

*) Agree with Humanity as an improvement. That said, how difficult is it to escape the blighted and ‘done-like-dinner’ trend known as gloss? Plopping Windows 3.1 icons in there would be an improvement. Of course, we would probably need to give them some of that lovely heavy-handed Tango 16 point outlining too.

I guess the nitpicking comes when there is little to discuss or get excited about. Weak execution coupled with weaker vision pulls us further along the path of mediocrity.

A great, huge, typical ‘Karmic is going to ROCK’ meh.

Great blog. Looking forward to reading more.