5 ms·

I wish one of the major Linux distributions would double down on design as a core priority (as in, bring in designers and give them serious pull). I'd kill for

I wish one of the major Linux distributions would double down on design as a core priority (as in, bring in designers and give them serious pull). I'd kill for a beautiful, opinionated, and novel Linux desktop environment.

digi_owl 10y ago
Err, thats what both KDE and Gnome has already done...
stinkytaco 10y ago
There are many that would argue that Gnome 3 is just that. Opinionated to the point of driving users away. Beyond that, there are many projects that I feel meet your criteria: Enlightenment, Deespin, Sugar, etc. And, of course, you can go ask the folks at i3 or wmii for an opinion, I bet they will be happy to give you several.
chadsy_ 10y ago
Check out elementary OS: https://elementary.io/ https://elementary.io/
nixos 10y ago
>as in, bring in designers That's the mistake. You bring in UX experts (who also happened to understand your primary users) Graphics design != UX
- digi_owl 10y ago
  > who also happened to understand your primary users That would be the hard part...
AdmiralAsshat 10y ago
That appears to be the explicit goal of ElementaryOS: https://elementary.io/ https://elementary.io/ Personally not my cup of tea, but you might enjoy it.
michaelmrose 10y ago
I wish I could downvote this more than once. Your heart is in the right place but designers don't seem to design very good interfaces. I'm reminded of the Bremerton Ferry Terminal. http://www.clinkstonarchitects.com/project/1/Bremerton_Transit_Center_Improvements http://www.clinkstonarchitects.com/project/1/Bremerton_Trans... It's attractive and all but that pretty canopy is turned up in the direction where the the rain and wind normally comes from and the seats which have these neat looking glass tops with embedded fish and octipi etc sculptures are not only uncomfortable, they also have a bar in the center presumably designed to stop homeless from sleeping on them which also stops more than 2 people from sitting and the glass has a lip which causes the rain the canopy lets in collect on the seats making them utterly useless at least 1/3 of the time.
tomc1985 10y ago
As long as it's not the Material school of design or any of these other sparse, happy atrocities that have graced the web and mobile over the last few years
symlinkk 10y ago
ElementaryOS is just a skin of GNOME and some half-assed replacements for some GNOME apps. If you want a polished desktop just install GNOME. The best distro for GNOME is Fedora. So I guess what I'm saying is just install Fedora.
dashingdolphin 10y ago
I think this is being attempted, though everyone I've seen is horrendous. - Graphics designers are not necessarily qualified UI (or "UX") designers - UX designers are not necessarily qualified UX designers - Qualified UX designers are not necessarily qualified designers of an OS UI. Most UX work you can get is essentially applying a few simple principles to yet another implementation of a CRUD app. I've only seen Linux distros make "design" progress on these fronts: - Eye candy: making things shake, glow, blink, blah, whatever. This is often pointless, and can exacerbate issues with hardware. - Terrible "modern design" copycatting: making fonts and buttons really huge and interfaces empty with no real clue what someone is going to use it for. KDE Neon's package manager sticks out as a bad offender I saw recently - Out of box setup: releasing something that has all the batteries included. Unfortunately, this also pretty much guarantees: it has software on it you don't need; it has software on it you don't want; it has software on it that will break at some point; understanding and customizing it will be treacherous and nigh impossible. You can go two ways: make a single/narrow purpose system, or make a general purpose system. Linux is great for single/narrow purpose systems, since it's all pieces you can pick and choose at your will. Of course, that won't work as a general computer. For a general purpose system, I think we need to stop trying to pretend that it's easy or can work out of the box and start accepting the fact that it's difficult and provide people the tools and documentation to handle it.

digi_owl 10y ago

Err, thats what both KDE and Gnome has already done...

stinkytaco 10y ago

There are many that would argue that Gnome 3 is just that. Opinionated to the point of driving users away. Beyond that, there are many projects that I feel meet your criteria: Enlightenment, Deespin, Sugar, etc. And, of course, you can go ask the folks at i3 or wmii for an opinion, I bet they will be happy to give you several.

chadsy_ 10y ago

Check out elementary OS: https://elementary.io/ https://elementary.io/

nixos 10y ago

>as in, bring in designers That's the mistake. You bring in UX experts (who also happened to understand your primary users) Graphics design != UX

digi_owl 10y ago
> who also happened to understand your primary users That would be the hard part...

AdmiralAsshat 10y ago

That appears to be the explicit goal of ElementaryOS: https://elementary.io/ https://elementary.io/ Personally not my cup of tea, but you might enjoy it.

michaelmrose 10y ago

I wish I could downvote this more than once. Your heart is in the right place but designers don't seem to design very good interfaces. I'm reminded of the Bremerton Ferry Terminal. http://www.clinkstonarchitects.com/project/1/Bremerton_Transit_Center_Improvements http://www.clinkstonarchitects.com/project/1/Bremerton_Trans... It's attractive and all but that pretty canopy is turned up in the direction where the the rain and wind normally comes from and the seats which have these neat looking glass tops with embedded fish and octipi etc sculptures are not only uncomfortable, they also have a bar in the center presumably designed to stop homeless from sleeping on them which also stops more than 2 people from sitting and the glass has a lip which causes the rain the canopy lets in collect on the seats making them utterly useless at least 1/3 of the time.

tomc1985 10y ago

As long as it's not the Material school of design or any of these other sparse, happy atrocities that have graced the web and mobile over the last few years

symlinkk 10y ago

ElementaryOS is just a skin of GNOME and some half-assed replacements for some GNOME apps. If you want a polished desktop just install GNOME. The best distro for GNOME is Fedora. So I guess what I'm saying is just install Fedora.

dashingdolphin 10y ago

I think this is being attempted, though everyone I've seen is horrendous. - Graphics designers are not necessarily qualified UI (or "UX") designers - UX designers are not necessarily qualified UX designers - Qualified UX designers are not necessarily qualified designers of an OS UI. Most UX work you can get is essentially applying a few simple principles to yet another implementation of a CRUD app. I've only seen Linux distros make "design" progress on these fronts: - Eye candy: making things shake, glow, blink, blah, whatever. This is often pointless, and can exacerbate issues with hardware. - Terrible "modern design" copycatting: making fonts and buttons really huge and interfaces empty with no real clue what someone is going to use it for. KDE Neon's package manager sticks out as a bad offender I saw recently - Out of box setup: releasing something that has all the batteries included. Unfortunately, this also pretty much guarantees: it has software on it you don't need; it has software on it you don't want; it has software on it that will break at some point; understanding and customizing it will be treacherous and nigh impossible. You can go two ways: make a single/narrow purpose system, or make a general purpose system. Linux is great for single/narrow purpose systems, since it's all pieces you can pick and choose at your will. Of course, that won't work as a general computer. For a general purpose system, I think we need to stop trying to pretend that it's easy or can work out of the box and start accepting the fact that it's difficult and provide people the tools and documentation to handle it.