Lucas:
Side note: I think selling a "desktop" is a very tough task as it's a too abstract concept for end users. What they "see" is Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, etc, not a desktop environment running on an operating system. Anyway, not saying it's not possible. Just making sure it's clear to everyone that this is a challenging task which will demand a lot of work and creativity to get right.
I always think that a good desktop integrates well with the web. I think Apple does a good job in creating a default web experience which relates to the usability design of the desktop itself. Because some HTML content is viewed locally, such as with gtk-doc API documentation, it is good to have good standards on how the web or HTML experience relates to usability. It think it would be a very useful output if this discussion generated some improvements in the GNOME HIG document. Brian