Hello folks,
I just had a shower an was thinking why linux OSes cannot look pretty like mac? Do linux programmers have no idea what looks good? Because I met people in my life who are so good at programming and that other boring stuff but do not know what sells or looks good. You know what I mean? Look what you are wearing, do you really cannot afford something that suits you, you probably making 3 times what I do. Is similar thing happening with linux GUI, can afford it but dont know that it would make your community 100x bigger? And yes i noticed it is getting better over past 10 years or so. Slightly. Currently im trying linux mint with MACOS wallpaper. I do have macbook, I just wanted to try linux after i realized I cannot install freetube on mac (not the end of the world and not final decision stop using mac or windows which I also have for gaming). Not unless i run some commands to disable “security”. And i do not feel comfortable doing it. Trying freetube happened after the day when apple locked my secondary icloud account which I used to try Indian youtube premium subscription by redeeming indian itunes card to top up the balance and buy subscription via appstore. it worked for a month, good that I bought only one months youtube price worth of itunes rupees. Was about 3 euros or dollars. I am quite new even to MacOS - 5 years or so, maybe 8. 99.9% of time not using terminal. So again what is it with Linux GUI? Can someone collaborate with me or ideally other aspiring and avid UX/UI designers to create something that would blow everyone’s even apple users’ minds? I mean if nobody wants I can help to make linux look amazing can you just do the coding and materialize it. I mean i have no xperience and never even tried to make an os GUI concept, should I do it first and then do similar rant? using gimp or photoshop? I have both. Photoshop GUI looks better lol and I even downloaded GIMP 3.something RC…
P.S. do good looking linux themes exist and I just dont know it yet? If they do, why they are not default for distros, why you have to download “some code” after that. How do I know it is not malicious? Man, so much more to learn isn’t it? Is it that you linux users do not want big community and make linux look bad on purpose so there is no viruses and other shit that you can find for example on Windows, because I think if same amount of people who are using windows would use linux, linux would not be this secure. is it secure actually? Can you simply explain how is it secure compared let’s say to windows? Scripts do not start running themselves? Explain me like im five please.
I appreciate your answers, and apologies to those who do not fly <@;)
Yours faithfully,
Dropper-Post
nihil sub sole novum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwO0CDYxyxcPARAGRAPHS, mf! Do you speak it?!
{ “title”: “But hey, I’m just a normal kid, like you, except that I ask questions”, “nsfw”: true, “sections”: [ { “type”: “paragraph”, “content”: “Hello folks,\n\nI just had a shower and was thinking why Linux OSes cannot look pretty like Mac? Do Linux programmers have no idea what looks good? Because I met people in my life who are so good at programming and that other boring stuff but do not know what sells or looks good. You know what I mean? Look what you are wearing, do you really cannot afford something that suits you, you probably making 3 times what I do. Is similar thing happening with Linux GUI, can afford it but don’t know that it would make your community 100x bigger? And yes I noticed it is getting better over past 10 years or so. Slightly.” }, { “type”: “paragraph”, “content”: “Currently I’m trying Linux Mint with MACOS wallpaper. I do have Macbook, I just wanted to try Linux after I realized I cannot install freetube on mac (not the end of the world and not final decision stop using mac or windows which I also have for gaming). Not unless i run some commands to disable “security”. And i do not feel comfortable doing it.” }, { “type”: “paragraph”, “content”: “Trying freetube happened after the day when Apple locked my secondary icloud account which I used to try Indian youtube premium subscription by redeeming indian itunes card to top up the balance and buy subscription via appstore. it worked for a month, good that I bought only one months youtube price worth of itunes rupees. Was about 3 euros or dollars. I am quite new even to MacOS - 5 years or so, maybe 8. 99.9% of time not using terminal.” }, { “type”: “paragraph”, “content”: “So again what is it with Linux GUI? Can someone collaborate with me or ideally other aspiring and avid UX/UI designers to create something that would blow everyone’s even apple users’ minds? I mean if nobody wants I can help to make linux look amazing can you just do the coding and materialize it. I mean i have no xperience and never even tried to make an os GUI concept, should I do it first and then do similar rant? using gimp or photoshop? I have both. Photoshop GUI looks better lol and I even downloaded GIMP 3.something RC…” }, { “type”: “paragraph”, “content”: “P.S. do good looking linux themes exist and I just dont know it yet? If they do, why they are not default for distros, why you have to download “some code” after that. How do I know it is not malicious? Man, so much more to learn isn’t it? Is it that you linux users do not want big community and make linux look bad on purpose so there is no viruses and other shit that you can find for example on Windows, because I think if same amount of people who are using windows would use linux, linux would not be this secure. is it secure actually? Can you simply explain how is it secure compared let’s say to windows? Scripts do not start running themselves? Explain me like im five please.” }, { “type”: “paragraph”, “content”: “I appreciate your answers, and apologies to those who do not fly <@;)\n\nYours faithfully,\n\nDropper-Post\n\nnihil sub sole novum\n\nhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WwO0CDYxyxc” } ] }
There are many linux distros like Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, Arch, Fedora etc, etc. and they usually come with a Default Desktop Environment Cinnamon, KDE, GNOME, XFCE, etc. etc. This is generally how the UI looks and functions. Menus, Window styles, buttons, and general overall visual theming. There are many ways to make the linux desktop environment better looking and functioning than macOS. Mac doesnt even have the ability to auto snap and resize the window to the edge of the screen until recently. And even then it decent at best. So beyond being able to fully customize the look of the desktop environment by using different ones with themes options, you can choose a DE that has better customization for user interaction that suites YOUR needs. Ofc Apple has a whole ecosystem of products that and a cloud that syncs your stuff across, but that comes at the cost of near zero customization ability…But whatever floats your boat. check out unixporn community, there are some really nice setups over there to give an idea of what is possible.
No viruses is when the gui sucks
First of all, you need to distinguish between a desktop environment and a distro. a distro by itself doesn’t have any looks, that is up to the desktop environment mostly. Secondly, you assume that the goal is attracting lots of users, which might be true for purely profit driven conpanies such as microsoft or apple, but linux mostly comprises of open source projects put together. only a few of the maintainers have the ultimate goal of attracting more and more users. they have an intrinsic motivation to create a cool project and hope it finds attraction by function instead of form.
now, what i reallylike about your post is that you do not just rant but want to get into solving exactly that problem. in my limited experience, loads of work go into designing a consistent UI that is just as functional as it is beautiful. hats off to you if you can really do it, but prepare for a rough ride, because UX mistakes are one of the first things to attracting users’ dissatisfaction which makes it a very unthankful job.
if you really want to get started, try first thinking about theoretical stuff: color schemes, usage paradigms, user stories and a general concept you want to adhere to, before you even start drawing some wireframes. UX design also requires rigorous testing from various different points of view and for most developers, it is just not worth putting that much effort in just to have “a little” less users complaining and instead calling the interface pretty (again: function over form).
also another reason might be the terminal affinity of devs that has them leaning away from UI, because a CLI is enough for a start.
i wouldnt call mint cinnamon the ugliest distro/DE pairing like other commenters, but i get that people looking for the prettiest desktop are prolly looking elsewhere.
I like your constructive criticism. You are good people 👍
formatting. learn it. use it.
Also how to title a post.
Also, don’t post an image (and then tag it as NSFW‽) for a text post!
If I’m looking for a text post, maybe I want to read discussion, and I see an image, I’ll skip it.
If I want to see images, and then see something that makes no sense and has no context, I’ll be irritated and confused when I realize it’s a nonsequitur attachment to a text post.
Have you tried Fedora GNOME? Looks pretty nice to me, and the UI is powerful and intuitive as well as attractive.
it just doesnt feel right
you can make it “right” to your taste using extensions
With Linux, you can literally do anything that you want. And lots of people are already doing just what you describe, making pretty and functional Desktop Environments and compositors for anyone to use. As a beginner I’d encourage you to check out all the major Desktop Environment options first. You can usually get any of these in most major distros (Cosmic may be less available and mature right now).
Article with others https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/best-linux-desktop-environments/
Then you can get into compositors, plugins, and other customization, where you can make your system look almost exactly how you want it:
https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/6099/paperwm/
https://github.com/Bismuth-Forge/bismuth
https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri
These just happen to include tiling because I love tiling haha… I’m sure there are other non-tiling projects you could try out as well.
Edit: sounds like you may have already rejected a bunch of the status quo Desktop Environments as too boring haha. Then I would encourage you to check out Cosmic, and then the experimental tiling compositors I listed above… I’m sure you will find them unique at the very least!
Wayfire is pretty unique, too!
Cosmic does seem a bit different from usual linux desktop environments. I am intrigued. I does look like something I would try. Kudos
You’ll understand when you get older kiddo.
Oh if only you’d lived through the days of funroll-loops gentoo is rice.
Linux users have other priorities
I would not be so sure that I will understand. Wouldnt it make sense for you to explain for (L)users like me now instead of waiting for me another 10-20years instead I could use your advice now and change my life for better or worse?
I aint reading all that.
Have you tried Gnome? IMO it does a better job than OS X at providing a simple, clean, streamlined gui
Thanks, in the future I will provide this as vertical video in short story format on video social platforms.
Why is this tagged NSFW?
just because of the nature of the post, i thought die hard linux fans will find it nsfw ;D
u are indeed an artiste
Thanks it means a lot to me
I’m sorry if this sounds rude, especially after not reading what must have taken you a long time to write…
Have you tried writing “distro that looks like macos” into a search engine?
i am not looking for a distro that looks like macos. Why linux distros look like shit is more like a question. They do look pretty lame and the same, even the supplied wallpapers are absolutely tasteless. You know what I mean? Is the GUI the hardest part of programming?
Yes. That’s why UX Design is its own thing.
But I disagree that it looks like shit, especially with the number of DE’s to choose from. On top of that, there’s entire sub-communities dedicated to ricing, so if you don’t like something, you can almost certainly change it with a little effort.
For example:
- Gnome + White Sur
- https://github.com/vinceliuice/WhiteSur-gtk-theme
- Gnome is pretty universally good, looks-wise, due in part to their opinionated philosophy. Some people don’t like it or how it functions, but I don’t think anyone can deny that it’s generally coherent.
- COSMIC is forthcoming, and it promises to be a great experience for a lot of people.
Regardless, I think you’re missing a core aspect of Linux. The goal isn’t to increase market share. People were tinkering around with TTY’s, because they liked it, and they will continue to do so long into the future.
Linux is about having choice and a system that’s yours. It isn’t about the UI being shiny and perfect, because for most, it’s just a means to get computing done. If you don’t like how things look, find another DE or look at how to rice yours. There’s so many options out there.
- Gnome + White Sur
Imo you picked the ugliest distro. You can pick any distro with kde desktop environment. It looks good by default. https://kde.org/ Or I like the looks of Deepin.
If you care for looks, GNOME looks far better than KDE, I would recommend Fedora GNOME to a newbie that wants a pretty and intuitive Linux experience.
kde is shit looking, sorry bro, no karma.
Are you sure your standards of beauty apply to most people? IMO macos design looks cheap compared to kde.
The main reason open source projects lack adoption is because there is no marketing or lobbying budgets.
Also you seem to be new here. No one cares about karma on Lemmy.
Do you know just how much money Apple pours into the design of their operating system?
Though I assume you never looked up what you are asking, as there are lots of people who customize their desktop to look like MacOS (there are ones that look exactly like one) or there are distros that come OOTB with a look similar to MacOS (like elementaryOS).
Since when design is rocket science especially now when there is AI which could create better sleeker design than apple
Apple works with excellent designers for sound and visuals. It’s very interesting to listen to their processes, how they work for months for a second long sound or a tiny icon. Apple has the means to employ these masters.
i hate using apple products, their inflexibility is frustrating when you know how open linux is. Apple infantilizes it’s users. Linux is permissive, it becomes whatever you want it to.
Design is easy when “anything goes”, it becomes “rocket science” when you’re after good design. People spend their whole lives mastering these illusive practices.
when it comes to user interfaces, design is successful when you don’t even see/hear/feel it. It gets out of your way.
AI is making 7, 9 fingered hands because it doesn’t even know what a hand is, how a human body functions. How can it “create better sleeker design than apple” ?
If you think LLMs will solve everything, then you’re doomed.
Good looking UI (designs) and good UX is not the same!
Apple is known for doing both relatively good (especially on the first iphone).
However personally I still dislike the Apple UI (the macos dock eats too much screen space, ios close all where?, ios back gesture,… for example) and UX (the system actively tries to prevent me from doing certain things). I mean, in the end, there often are keybindings that do the job, but those are harder to learn the the emacs keybindings imo.
You can shrink dock or hide it… but anyways so much we dont know
ElementaryOS (Pantheon desktop)
It’s shit I tried. Looks terrible in actuality. Also ties to copy mac. I am not saying Linux have to look like mac. They can look unique but be good. Lol
