Today I came across a very thoughtful article/rant on Linux.com about the trend of Linux reviews measuring this or that distro release against a supposed goal of being "ready for the desktop", when the actual definition of a "desktop-ready" OS isn't actually defintive, but rather subjective.
Jeremy LaCroix goes into two main variations on this trend and exposes the inherent objectivity problems with it. First up is comparing Linux to Windows, as if Windows is the reference for "desktop-ready" for everyone. The problem with this is that no OS is "desktop-ready" for everyone. Windows tries to be everything for everyone, but that's it's biggest weakness. It's strength is it's large collection of commercial apps, and plays to that. That makes it favored for business and office use. Macs focus on multimedia creation, tight hardware integration and different usability concepts. Linux is renowned for it's total customization, portability, development base and stability(ditto for Unix). So each OS is tailored for different audiences, and judging one or more OSes against a percieved "perfect" OS robs objectivity out of a review.
The other variation is the "let's sit a non computer-savvy person down and see how he/she gets along on this distro". Think about that scenario for a second. That's like putting a jet pilot in front of a tank's cockpit and seeing how he does with it. No matter what the distro or OS, that person may get some of the easy basics in a few minutes, but it will take at least a week of regular use to seriously learn how to use it. And a reviewer using this variation won't realize that and simply judge based on the first use. So again, objectivity is thrown out the window in favor of an attention-grabbing "review".
I know if I were forced to work on Windows or Mac OS X for a day, I would have quite a few problems. There's no one-stop package manager like Synaptic on Windows, and the UI differences on Mac OS X would clash with my navigation habits. So if I reviewed both OSes like that, they would both recieve an F, and I would rightly catch a lot of flak for it. So, for the sake of objectivity and preventing flame wars, let's replace "Is it ready for the desktop?" with "Is it ready for your desktop?", okay?