Evan,
I see the GUI sitting on top as being a positive, not a negative. If something goes wrong in the GUI, you can kill the GUI and restart it, without affecting system processes that are running independent of the GUI (such as a SQL server, apache, etc.).
Comparing the underlying OS to DOS 6.2 is comparing apples to oranges. Linux is fully multi-tasking, and it does not depend on the GUI (ie: Win 3.1) to attempt to trick the OS (ie: DOS) to do it.
Just some thoughts...
>I was monkeying around with Red Hat 6.1 a few weeks back. It really is a GUI >over top of a character OS... a throwback to Win 3.1/Dos 6.2 days. Yuck
Take care,
Steve Gibson