Shallow person that I am.....
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| helios Oct 17, 2012 12:18 AM EDT |
Ya know, The Linuxspere is full of applications that are "good enough" and we've become accepting of them. Having spent a few days in the Wonderful World of Windows lately, it struck me just how much prettier Windows apps tend to be. Now I will admit that I'm a sucker for bling. I likes me some bursting sparkles and rainbow-emitting unicorns via my computer screen, but realistically, I understand that the app is there for productivity, not my amusement. Linux itself can be made to look pretty, but some apps just didn't get the memo. It seems that many Linux app devs live by that credo and we get stuff that mostly works, but is butt-ugly. Some that come to mind are Gparted, Synaptic and Xsane. All do A+ jobs in relation to their tasks but man...if I had a dog that ugly I'd shave it's.... Never mind, no need to go there. I am aware that beauty is in the eye of the beholder and there are those that will take issue with this, but personally, I think Linux could use a face lift and a tuck here and there. I'm in the unique position of hearing hundreds of people react to the Linux Desktop every year, and I hear this same thing echoed all the time. Excuses like "It's Linux, it's not supposed to be pretty" don't really pique a lot of encouragement out in the field. People like sparkles and pop on their monitors...not mono-colored boxes. That being said, and not being a coder myself, I am sure that the particular environment and language has a lot to do with it. I know I've heard many people blame GTK for fostering such ugly step-sisters. Recently, I've rekindled my affair with KDE 4 and Trinity and I have to say that I can make my desktop absolutely beautiful, and uniformly beautiful....that is until I pull up that one GTK app that looks like a mud splotch on a clean white shirt. I've tweaked my SolusOS desktop to the point where many ask if it's KDE. No, it's Gnome 2 but done the way I like it. Again, beauty, beholder and all of that. [url=https://dc2.safesync.com/FQBmnDs/shared stuff/currentdesktop.png?a=QFLr9Y-Xl8k]https://dc2.safesync.com/FQBmnDs/shared stuff/currentdesktop...[/url] I don't know what the answer is but I do think that any user base could be increased or at least maintained by a little paint and TLC. Just sayin'. |
| BernardSwiss Oct 17, 2012 2:05 AM EDT |
Yes, indeed. I'm old enough to know better -- and I still get sucked in by the "judging the book by its cover" reflex. Of course, when I'm dining out, I care more about the taste than the "presentation", and far more about the food than about the decor and "atmosphere" -- but judging by my experience in restaurants (both sides of the counter), that puts me in a distinct minority. And still, I probably get influenced by the "polished apples" effect more than I'd like to admit. When I first started using Linux, about 2000, I mostly used IceWm. People generally lost interest at seeing what some described as a stodgy "Windows '95" appearance. When I experimented with WindowManager -- a much glossier, much sleeker desktop with vibrant colours, cool features like "tear-away" menus, and nothing resembling Windows in its appearance, reception was noticeably warmer. I actually found Icewm, on my little 14' monitor, to be noticeably more congenial to actually getting work done -- but I kept WindowManager handy for when I had visitors (or just felt like a change of pace). |
| dinotrac Oct 17, 2012 6:15 AM EDT |
This is a great big bad sucking symptom of the basic free software problem for user-level free software: primacy of code. Free software tends to focus more on code and coders than software per se. Usability, , help, attractiveness, etc get the short shrift. Not a problem for server-oriented software. Not a problem for developer tools. Stuff for non-coders? Problem. |
| helios Oct 17, 2012 7:19 AM EDT |
I've been on Google + too long BernardSwiss and Dino....Was looking for the +l marker. |
| dinotrac Oct 17, 2012 12:53 PM EDT |
;0) |
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