programer oriented GUI

[Andrew Watson]

hey.  im a newbie to computers but especially to unix and variants.  i
just installed debian on my old pentium :)  i am amazed at the wealth of
proming capabilities of postix systems.  but.  i was a hacker on windoz.
and.  i would like to be able to use the GUI tools that i could use on
windoz.  like OLE and the windowz API.  why has this not been ported?  is
there a way to implement a GUI that is capable of running cross platform
and oriented to programers choice of tool sets?  sorry if this is an
ignorant question.  i don't know a whole lot about the x-window system. ie
(i haven't even run it yet).  but from what i hear it's probably the most
powerfull GUI available for programers to design for.  but it's very
unfriendly.  the power of the windows system and thus it's popularity is
that any complete idiot (fecitious) can figure it out in a couple of days
and have the power to controll his/her own computing environment.  i think
windows has aa lot of work to do to be friendler and more plastic for
programers and end users alike.  i think OLE is a step in the right
direction.  for programers atleast.  x-windows on the other hand has the
ability to be more flexible for programers but not for end users (and i
mean that like windows it is made for the masses.)  X11R6 needs the
ability to have a "startup button" or an "apple menu".  is there already
something like this available?  i think the next step is to automate tasks
in a GUI environment so that all users can have the access to a more
pewerfull environment.  and it _would_ be more powerfull if it is friendly
to users if it had the extendability for programers to write friendler
applications. which i think is the direction that linux should go.  it
needs to be more universal so that programers can more easily work cross
platform.  there is a right tool currently for every job imaginable (in my
mind atleast.  i would love for somebody to prover me wrong but i _am_ a
newbie to puters).   anyhow thats my speal.

does this make sense?  i mean from the standpoint of hackers especially.

my goal is to get rid of windows.  that is my sick adjenda.  i think the
command line is my new heroin.  but if there was a way  (and im not shure
this is gunna go over especially in the debian community)  that we could
'dumb' down the linux system.  by that i mean make it more friendly.  b/c
it is already a powerull system for application design.  there is the
potential for use among the masses.  linux may not be the OS of the future
but i think that win98 and NT will unite bringing more power to the end
user.  the internet is the staple of the future of computing.  period.
and java and it's future offspring will be the backboard of that
communication oriented near future.  people are looking to computers to
give them a way that they can make their lives more efficient, connected,
empowered.  they are looking for digital efficacy.  we are not there.
people are the ones that are being more flexible, not the software.  altho
we are making leaps and bounds in that direction,  what im trying to say
is that the OS of the future must include power for programrs and
"friendly" extendablity with in a GUI framework.  they must be in unison.
the linux system has the power for the programrs. and the traditional
operating systems such as mac and win have the friendlyness.  nobody has
the placitisity.  but the unification of a friendly and piwwerfull and
extendable user interface is the direction that i think that linux has to
go.  (and not windows - but i fear they will get there first). 

i'll stop my ramblings now.

please respond.

-andrew