Ubuntu linux is making some big inroads to becoming a viable alternative to other mainstream operating systems. Hardware support is awesome, update managers and package installers are near perfect. Overall it's incredibly solid.

The one thing that lets it down however, is the look and feel. There is talk of a redesign for the next major release, so with any luck they can get something up and running that competes with other major players.

Windows XP, Windows Vista, and OSX all have very good looking interfaces to the majority of people. Some will defend Ubuntu by saying that it's meant to be functional, and not just look good. We live in a society where looks count for a lot, so like it or not, people simply are not going to switch to something like ubuntu until it has that same "nice" factor.

To be fair, you can change themes, but your average user will not bother (or even know that you can), and in schools, libraries, offices, it's nice to have a standard look and feel (which is usually the standard one). You can skin other operating systems with not to much effort required, but most people don't bother as they look great out of the box.

It's obvious that the default "human" theme in Ubuntu is designed to emulate human skin tones, and "brown/orange" to represent the earth in an effort to make it seem very "human" (as the name suggests). Unfortunately, it simply produces a very dull and boring look which is not unpleasent, but definitely not "nice looking".

Above are probably the 3 "key" players in the desktop OS environment. Ubuntu is primarily, droll, boring colours - brown, grey and orange. Even the standard desktop background is very un-inspiring. Windows Vista and OSX Leopard both have a highly "vibrent" and "exciting" background images. Granted, most people change their desktop backgrounds, but it proves a good point when you compare the 3 standard issue backgrounds as it follows through into other design elements.

Vista and Leopard make good use of "friendly" colours. Blues, greens, and this follows through on previous releases such as the XP theme and Apples, blue "aqua" theme.

If we look into some colour theory and the emotions it can induce some of the reasons behind these choices by Microsoft and Apple) start to unfold.

Green has properties such as nature, health, cheerfulness. Blue: truth, dignity, power. These colours don't particularly have "bad" meanings, only "good".

Orange (also close to red), brown/black (as used in ubuntu's theme) can be interpreted in more than one way as they also have "bad" meanings such as "repressed, lazy" (for brown) , evil, death (black). Orange is a very harsh colour, it's the colour of "fire", birds and other animals use orange as a "warning colour".

I beleive the designers were perhaps trying to be very different from anything offered by the big players, however sometimes there are good reasons behind choices, and I daresay Apple and Microsoft would have done extensive research into which colours the use.

A lot of hardcore linux users will turn their noses up at "visual" complaints, but the sad truth is, your average user couldn't care less about "how" their operating system works, just as long as it does work. They DO care about how it looks and how they can interact with it, which is why I really hope the new look and feel for ubuntu linux can rise to the occasion.