8 ms·

Had the same thing. Turns out, I'm more of a design snob then I thought I was. Trying to move away from macOS and trying out Windows and a few Linux distro's, m

Had the same thing. Turns out, I'm more of a design snob then I thought I was. Trying to move away from macOS and trying out Windows and a few Linux distro's, my god it's all ugly. I don't care much about Apple hardware specifically, but they got my hooked because of the OS. Pretty lame.

nextos 10y ago
Try something without any design at all, like Linux with a tiling window manager and some minimal applications.
- setq 10y ago
  This is what I use Windows for. It's an SSH terminal that has a web browser and plays music (via groove which is actually quite good)
  - somecallitblues 10y ago
    Is Putty still a thing on Win or does it have something native?
    - dagw 10y ago
      Putty (or Kitty or MobaTerm) is still a thing, but there are other options. The Linux subsystem will give you a *nix shell and ssh that works exactly like you expect it to. There is also msys which will give you an ssh client you can run directly from cmd.exe or power shell. Microsoft have been working on a proper native port of OpenSSH, but while it apparently works pretty well, it's still not feature complete or ready to be shipped as a standard part of Windows (hopefully early next year).
    - setq 10y ago
      I use putty. Haven't found a compelling reason to use anything else yet.
  - dkersten 10y ago
    My previous laptop was a windows machine that acted as a web browser, music/video player and VirtualBox host. All of my work was done in linux in virtualbox (and my SSH terminal was also bash running on linux in virtualbox). My linux environment was very minimal though (mostly living in the terminal, used a tiling WM, vim as my editor). In many ways my mac environment isn't that different except without the tiling WM. That setup worked quite well, although used more resources than if I hadn't used Virtualbox.
- mhink 10y ago
  I totally agree with you- but it's worth pointing out that a tiling window manager + minimal applications is still a designed interface.
- scandox 10y ago
  I agree. To my mind the greatest obstacle to Linux Desktop adoption is the traditional Desktop concept.
  - 2muchcoffeeman 10y ago
    To me, NeXTStep was the best feature rich desktop. I wish there was a modern version that isn't macOS.
    - agentgt 10y ago
      Well it depends on what you consider modern but Openbox is still alive and kicking (albeit it is only a window manager). On a rant tangental note a slight annoyance I have lately is that all the window managers are getting pushed out / ignored because of Wayland. With Wayland you basically have to write an entire desktop instead of just a window manager. I used to love that about Linux.. the pick and choose what works best model but now the choices are becoming fewer. Oh well back to my macbook with zero choice.
    - equalarrow 10y ago
      The only wm I loved and stuck with on Linux was Windowmaker. Your comment is why - NeXTStep was awesome and missed..
- rahoulb 10y ago
  Weirdly enough that's how I spend a lot of my time on my iPad Pro - use Mosh to connect to a Linux box and then use tmux and vim to set up tiles and do my work.
- maksimum 10y ago
  Back in 2009 my dream was to run OSX with a Thinkpad keyboard and trackpoint. Now that I have OSX on a Thinkpad X220 my dream is to run i3-wm with unified application design language and underlying foundations. On OSX Spotlight works well and gives me what I want, and applications look good. There aren't any missing icons and text size isn't all over the place. Amethyst WM on OSX is pretty good, but it's not as good as i3. I'm not sure if it's easier to make applications look good on Linux or to get a WM that looks more like i3 on OSX.
  - supernintendo 10y ago
    Oh nice, how is driver support on the X220? I've had mixed luck with Hackintoshes. I agree that there is a lack of great window managers on OS X. I'd love to be able to run awesomewm.
Ar-Curunir 10y ago
Take a look at reddit.com/r/unixporn
- SkyMarshal 10y ago
  C'mon now, don't be lazy, add that http:// http:// to the front to create a link: http://reddit.com/r/unixporn/ http://reddit.com/r/unixporn/
  - wolfgke 10y ago
    > C'mon now, don't be lazy, add that http:// http:// to the front to create a link: C'mon now, don't be lazy, add that s to the end of http to create a link: https://reddit.com/r/unixporn/ https://reddit.com/r/unixporn/
  - Ar-Curunir 10y ago
    I didn't know that was a feature. Oops!
- hollander 10y ago
  I never get these screenshots of desktop backgrounds. It's background-porn. The fact that it's made on Linux and has a Linux menubar and different fonts than Windows or Mac - who cares? I've used Ubuntu since seven years at work, the mac since 17 years, Windows not anymore since seven years, unless when helping others. I would change to Linux anytime if all would just work, meaning Photoshop and other software that now doesn't work. Plus the mac is still my favorite piece of hardware. When I bought this 2015 Macbook, I've looked for a good Linux laptop, and came out at about the same price. Then the choice was easy.
  - awinder 10y ago
    Most of those posts have a good deal of theming setup. Usually people include just the background alone because people invariably want the source to use on their own setups :P
  - mattkevan 10y ago
SkyMarshal 10y ago
Funny I'm the exact opposite. Only on a MBPr for the hardware, otherwise would prefer Linux to OSX. Lightweight tiling window manager + Vim keybinds for all apps = super efficient. With OSX I actually have to use the mouse. How quaint.
- bosie 10y ago
  how do you get vim keybinds in every app?
  - j7ake 10y ago
    Also curious!
    - pmarreck 10y ago
      (dupe of other comment in same thread by me) For OS X at least... https://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html https://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html If you haven't yet tweaked these "not well-advertised" settings, this may indeed turn out to be a "this changes everything!" moment for you
    - mateuszf 10y ago
      I guess he's picking the apps that support that - probably web browser via extension, and cli apps which often do that.
  - pmarreck 10y ago
    For OS X at least... https://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html https://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html If you haven't yet tweaked these "not well-advertised" settings, this may indeed turn out to be a "this changes everything!" moment for you
  - ake1 10y ago
    pretty much everything has a vi-mode these days. all shells, tmux, browser via extension (vimperator/vimium/cvim/surfingkeys) or by default (uzbl et al), wm by configuration or default (bspwm/i3/awesome etc.). intellij even has support for an .ideavimrc which surprisingly works quite well.
dom0 10y ago
Give an up-to-date KDE a shot.
- yoz-y 10y ago
  KDE certainly is powerful and the Kparts system is amazing. However, in the beauty category I would put it at the bottom of the bunch.
  - dom0 10y ago
    So, did you use a recent version?
    - ccozan 10y ago
      I have to concur, the latest Fedora 25 with the KDE Plasma is a beauty to use. Put it on a new Thinkpad X1 Carbon, screen is amazing, fonts crystal clear, all very smooth.
  - ufo 10y ago
    KDE Plasma 5 is gorgeous. I couldn't stand KDE4's "windows XP" look but now KDE is one of my favorite DEs.
    - saghm 10y ago
      I used Plasma 5 for a while and really loved the interface and the ability to customize almost anything, but what got me in the end was trying to sync settings across multiple machines. From what I can tell, there are a bunch of random files with names starting with "k" dumped in ~/.config that store most of the settings, but copying them to different machines didn't seem to work. Of course, it's not much easier to sync settings with something like Gnome, but it takes me a lot less time and effort to set up Gnome with the exact settings I like than Plasma. If I didn't switch around machines/distros a lot, I probably would have stuck with Plasma though.
- bluedino 10y ago
  KDE was trash when Ubuntu first started and chose GNOME but I'm sure they are kicking themselves now.
mcv 10y ago
You'd think it wouldn't be that hard to make a prettier UI, but apparently it is.
- wruza 10y ago
  Original windows interface is pretty usable. What makes it worse is that they change, regroup and rename things each f-ing year. W7 made it hard to select apps (floating groups in taskbar), explorer introduced dumb libraries, control panel is always a mess, as is /Users/Shared (iirc) thing. Now that w10. I try it and understand that I'm unable to do anything again and again. Biggest questionable change in macos for 6 years was new ui flavor and maximize button became fullscreen. That said, iTunes also experiments too much.
frankzinger 10y ago
Ubuntu with Unity looks pretty good out of the box. The appearance of my desktop has been a non-issue for years.

nextos 10y ago

Try something without any design at all, like Linux with a tiling window manager and some minimal applications.

setq 10y ago
This is what I use Windows for. It's an SSH terminal that has a web browser and plays music (via groove which is actually quite good)
- somecallitblues 10y ago
  Is Putty still a thing on Win or does it have something native?
  - dagw 10y ago
    Putty (or Kitty or MobaTerm) is still a thing, but there are other options. The Linux subsystem will give you a *nix shell and ssh that works exactly like you expect it to. There is also msys which will give you an ssh client you can run directly from cmd.exe or power shell. Microsoft have been working on a proper native port of OpenSSH, but while it apparently works pretty well, it's still not feature complete or ready to be shipped as a standard part of Windows (hopefully early next year).
  - setq 10y ago
    I use putty. Haven't found a compelling reason to use anything else yet.
- dkersten 10y ago
  My previous laptop was a windows machine that acted as a web browser, music/video player and VirtualBox host. All of my work was done in linux in virtualbox (and my SSH terminal was also bash running on linux in virtualbox). My linux environment was very minimal though (mostly living in the terminal, used a tiling WM, vim as my editor). In many ways my mac environment isn't that different except without the tiling WM. That setup worked quite well, although used more resources than if I hadn't used Virtualbox.
mhink 10y ago
I totally agree with you- but it's worth pointing out that a tiling window manager + minimal applications is still a designed interface.
scandox 10y ago
I agree. To my mind the greatest obstacle to Linux Desktop adoption is the traditional Desktop concept.
- 2muchcoffeeman 10y ago
  To me, NeXTStep was the best feature rich desktop. I wish there was a modern version that isn't macOS.
  - agentgt 10y ago
    Well it depends on what you consider modern but Openbox is still alive and kicking (albeit it is only a window manager). On a rant tangental note a slight annoyance I have lately is that all the window managers are getting pushed out / ignored because of Wayland. With Wayland you basically have to write an entire desktop instead of just a window manager. I used to love that about Linux.. the pick and choose what works best model but now the choices are becoming fewer. Oh well back to my macbook with zero choice.
  - equalarrow 10y ago
    The only wm I loved and stuck with on Linux was Windowmaker. Your comment is why - NeXTStep was awesome and missed..
rahoulb 10y ago
Weirdly enough that's how I spend a lot of my time on my iPad Pro - use Mosh to connect to a Linux box and then use tmux and vim to set up tiles and do my work.
maksimum 10y ago
Back in 2009 my dream was to run OSX with a Thinkpad keyboard and trackpoint. Now that I have OSX on a Thinkpad X220 my dream is to run i3-wm with unified application design language and underlying foundations. On OSX Spotlight works well and gives me what I want, and applications look good. There aren't any missing icons and text size isn't all over the place. Amethyst WM on OSX is pretty good, but it's not as good as i3. I'm not sure if it's easier to make applications look good on Linux or to get a WM that looks more like i3 on OSX.
- supernintendo 10y ago
  Oh nice, how is driver support on the X220? I've had mixed luck with Hackintoshes. I agree that there is a lack of great window managers on OS X. I'd love to be able to run awesomewm.

Ar-Curunir 10y ago

Take a look at reddit.com/r/unixporn

SkyMarshal 10y ago
C'mon now, don't be lazy, add that http:// http:// to the front to create a link: http://reddit.com/r/unixporn/ http://reddit.com/r/unixporn/
- wolfgke 10y ago
  > C'mon now, don't be lazy, add that http:// http:// to the front to create a link: C'mon now, don't be lazy, add that s to the end of http to create a link: https://reddit.com/r/unixporn/ https://reddit.com/r/unixporn/
- Ar-Curunir 10y ago
  I didn't know that was a feature. Oops!
hollander 10y ago
I never get these screenshots of desktop backgrounds. It's background-porn. The fact that it's made on Linux and has a Linux menubar and different fonts than Windows or Mac - who cares? I've used Ubuntu since seven years at work, the mac since 17 years, Windows not anymore since seven years, unless when helping others. I would change to Linux anytime if all would just work, meaning Photoshop and other software that now doesn't work. Plus the mac is still my favorite piece of hardware. When I bought this 2015 Macbook, I've looked for a good Linux laptop, and came out at about the same price. Then the choice was easy.
- awinder 10y ago
  Most of those posts have a good deal of theming setup. Usually people include just the background alone because people invariably want the source to use on their own setups :P
- mattkevan 10y ago

SkyMarshal 10y ago

Funny I'm the exact opposite. Only on a MBPr for the hardware, otherwise would prefer Linux to OSX. Lightweight tiling window manager + Vim keybinds for all apps = super efficient. With OSX I actually have to use the mouse. How quaint.

bosie 10y ago
how do you get vim keybinds in every app?
- j7ake 10y ago
  Also curious!
  - pmarreck 10y ago
    (dupe of other comment in same thread by me) For OS X at least... https://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html https://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html If you haven't yet tweaked these "not well-advertised" settings, this may indeed turn out to be a "this changes everything!" moment for you
  - mateuszf 10y ago
    I guess he's picking the apps that support that - probably web browser via extension, and cli apps which often do that.
- pmarreck 10y ago
  For OS X at least... https://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html https://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~jrus/site/cocoa-text.html If you haven't yet tweaked these "not well-advertised" settings, this may indeed turn out to be a "this changes everything!" moment for you
- ake1 10y ago
  pretty much everything has a vi-mode these days. all shells, tmux, browser via extension (vimperator/vimium/cvim/surfingkeys) or by default (uzbl et al), wm by configuration or default (bspwm/i3/awesome etc.). intellij even has support for an .ideavimrc which surprisingly works quite well.

dom0 10y ago

Give an up-to-date KDE a shot.

yoz-y 10y ago
KDE certainly is powerful and the Kparts system is amazing. However, in the beauty category I would put it at the bottom of the bunch.
- dom0 10y ago
  So, did you use a recent version?
  - ccozan 10y ago
    I have to concur, the latest Fedora 25 with the KDE Plasma is a beauty to use. Put it on a new Thinkpad X1 Carbon, screen is amazing, fonts crystal clear, all very smooth.
- ufo 10y ago
  KDE Plasma 5 is gorgeous. I couldn't stand KDE4's "windows XP" look but now KDE is one of my favorite DEs.
  - saghm 10y ago
    I used Plasma 5 for a while and really loved the interface and the ability to customize almost anything, but what got me in the end was trying to sync settings across multiple machines. From what I can tell, there are a bunch of random files with names starting with "k" dumped in ~/.config that store most of the settings, but copying them to different machines didn't seem to work. Of course, it's not much easier to sync settings with something like Gnome, but it takes me a lot less time and effort to set up Gnome with the exact settings I like than Plasma. If I didn't switch around machines/distros a lot, I probably would have stuck with Plasma though.
bluedino 10y ago
KDE was trash when Ubuntu first started and chose GNOME but I'm sure they are kicking themselves now.

mcv 10y ago

You'd think it wouldn't be that hard to make a prettier UI, but apparently it is.

wruza 10y ago
Original windows interface is pretty usable. What makes it worse is that they change, regroup and rename things each f-ing year. W7 made it hard to select apps (floating groups in taskbar), explorer introduced dumb libraries, control panel is always a mess, as is /Users/Shared (iirc) thing. Now that w10. I try it and understand that I'm unable to do anything again and again. Biggest questionable change in macos for 6 years was new ui flavor and maximize button became fullscreen. That said, iTunes also experiments too much.

frankzinger 10y ago

Ubuntu with Unity looks pretty good out of the box. The appearance of my desktop has been a non-issue for years.