I particularly like that RMS quote

> the Linux desktop teams seem to have lost ambition and to have settled for doing it for themselves and a small circle of users, rather than aiming for world domination.

From my POV all the plays for world domination in the linux DE environments led to massive delayed releases, significant frustration of existing users *and* existing developers, and to, at least, a decrease in adoption & development rate.

It's often a valid approach to forgo power users and focus "normal users" instead. But that doesn't work if most of your development comes from those power users, if they're your only multiplicators, and your only QA and support.

I also have the impression is that that world domination is not as much the goal anymore. But I think it's because making ambitious and widely unrealistic plays burned out a significant fraction of contributors and users. With naught to show for it.