hendersj - CloudLion_ca was joking
monoRhesus: I explain it by analogy.
An operating system is more than a piece of software; it's an ecosystem - and ecosystems thrive on diversity.
You have, basically, three choices. You can get a fish tank - and they come in two different colours - and then fill it with the sterile specimens that the shop's suppliers choose to breed and stock. Maybe a blue one, maybe a red one - maybe even a plant or two and a tatty little plastic sunken pirate ship.
Or you can wade into the oceans' vastness armed with nothing but a torch and a net, find the myriad slimy, bizarre and sometimes frightening things lurking out there, take a few of them home, and breed them to your own deranged designs.
If you have the determination, you will end up with more satisfaction and a better result. If you don't... Well, you're stuck with the circumscribed illusion of choice; the choice between what has been created, specifically by avoiding real variation, to appeal to a wide and largely non-discriminating audience. A few of the infinite possibilities of nature, picked out of the primordial ooze for their initial blandness and inoffensiveness for you, stuck in a featureless box, and repeatedly bred with their cousins.
