There is a lot of applications in C#, a lot in Java, a lot in full python (e.g. ubuntu utilities), some in flex (cheers to balsamiq the wonderful). The fact that you didn't installed them doesn't mean they aren't there. Moreover, you shouldn't say C/C++, they are very different languages and I can bet my hat that your desktop applications are full of C++ with an high level framework like Qt. Not really close to the metal.