-> no standard package format
RPM and DEB. A standard doesn't mean just one way of doing things otherwise we would have 1 world language, 1 culture ..etc..etc. The Nazi's tried to make it this
way..we stopped them for a
reason..
Windows does have a standard package format (albeit its not a very good one). It's a simple EXE. Game patches install from them; critical system patches install from these as well; any software on the platform (whether its freeware, shareware, commercial, GPL, proprietary, etc.) installs using these painless and carefree files. Linux, however, currently lacks something of this sort. Redhat uses RPM, Slackware uses PKG (gzipped tar), Debian uses DEB. Thankfully SuSE decided _not_ have their own package format (the "Yet Another..." method of naming software speaks to this situation in Linux). Yes, RPM is the "standard" (LSB), but what good is it if the other distros don't all use it (e.g. Debian and all the variants such as Progeny, Storm, Corel, etc.)? Some software writers prefer to only distribute source. For example, a new cdrtools version became available recently. No RPM was available of that version, so I compiled my own, thankfully without problems (unlike the previous version). Being the average "Windows user", I would have no clue how to do that. I would probably then wait for the major distros to compile their own RPM's (or DEBs, or PKG, or whatever), if ever, and then download them.
EXE are not a package format. And it does not only copy files and execute scripts... what if your exe is not what you think and it's just the trojan?
AFAIK, a qt / KDE theme does not change the appearance of gtk apps. It doesn't even change apps like Netscape (which uses Motif).
Why? Should it?
-> no standard video / audio API (a la DirectX)
OpenGL and ALSA .. they can be used on every distribution..and even Win/Mac can use OpenGL ..wow multi-platform..now THAT's a standard.
Why not use Loki's SDL and OpenAL? What if your card doesn't support OpenGL very well? What if your sound card doesn't have good Alsa support? If you use Microsoft, the questions are superfluous: DirectX or no DirectX. I do, however, agree with you in that OpenGL is definitely the way to go in terms of graphics API's. Just one more question: QT or GTK?
There is a problem which makes impossible for you to make your choice? Linux is better because it's not always the same. It's highly customizable. It's fantasy, not just like some GUI decided by someone else and that you cant modify or change or simply turn off.