>From prior experience, when I make something I can use on a daily basis, I would find it hard to use something different.
Well, I think he feels that Gnome failed to build something he can use on a daily basis. Back in 1998 it was all about overtaking Windows and building the platform for the future. That didn't pan out that well -- Windows are still dominant, and OS X is more prevalent and useful as a desktop system than Gnome is. Nowadays Gnome is bleeding developers (GTK, the very core toolkit of Gnome has like 1 maintainer) and mainstream distros even think of switching away from it.
Well, I think he feels that Gnome failed to build something he can use on a daily basis. Back in 1998 it was all about overtaking Windows and building the platform for the future. That didn't pan out that well -- Windows are still dominant, and OS X is more prevalent and useful as a desktop system than Gnome is. Nowadays Gnome is bleeding developers (GTK, the very core toolkit of Gnome has like 1 maintainer) and mainstream distros even think of switching away from it.
You tend to get disappointed from such outcomes.