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So one thing I don't understand is why window managers in linux never seem to have ways to let the user tweak the UI? I mean it's something to add, but I find i

by Folcon 8y ago

So one thing I don't understand is why window managers in linux never seem to have ways to let the user tweak the UI? I mean it's something to add, but I find it odd that no one has thought to add it? Or is it just a feature hidden somewhere? I've thought on several occasions that I'd be pretty happy if I could just hijack how the UI layer was rendering some program, tweak text sizes, adjust colours and make that a user specific choice that can be done at the OS level. It would make linux far more accessible in my opinion and give the average user a way to fix issues that as you say may make some feel physically sick and dizzy. Users could then start sharing fixes and tweaks and devs who are interested could pull in these settings into the main program, the work could be shared and these OS's could get better! =)... It just seems such a prefect example of give power to your user and everything is editable, many people don't have time to dig into the internals of everything, but they'd be happy using a relatively straightforward tool (or at least one with tons of tutorials) to adjust the programs they use to their liking, and I'd wager they'd be pretty happy sharing the tweaks they made too. Maybe this already exists? If it does please tell me! It's the one major thing that keeps me coming back to macs/windows machines. I find it pretty funny, most of my linux time is lived in servers and when I was a teen I ran ubuntu desktop for some time, but I just couldn't deal with it after a while. Which is a shame in my book, and I could certainly see something like this being in the community spirit of linux. PS: If anyone is thinking of doing this and want's to talk to me for some reason, I'll be happy to discuss this further =)...

secure 8y ago
The look & feel of applications can be changed by using GTK or Qt themes and there’s entire websites dedicated to sharing these. Isn’t this what you describe? Side note: Window managers are only responsible for the window decoration, i.e. the frame around the contents and the title bar. Not a lot to tweak there, but most window managers do actually allow changing pretty much every aspect of it. GTK/Qt are toolkits, not window managers.
- Folcon 8y ago
  Right, but that seems to be something that requires the user specifically to be a dev? And to know how to compile each program they need to tweak? I'm thinking of something where say I load up a program UI Tweak, I don't need to know anything about the software I'm working with, I just select the element that I want to adjust, the label sizes for text in the dialogue, or the colour of the text by clicking on it. Think Autohotkey's spy tool[0], when using Autohotkey with the spy tool, I just select the elements that I want to manipulate and then choose what I want to do with them. In my opinion, this significantly lowers barriers to entry for users wanting to change things to suit them. Then the developers of such software can work out ways of making apps work better with such a system. Maybe linux based UI apps need to improve their api so that they can take instructions to adjust it? Or they just add some simple hooks the UI Tweak can understand and use to adjust behaviour? I don't know what users will want, but allowing users to describe what they want, letting them know it's possible, and giving them an avenue to share and communicate their needs can only help improve the quality of the software, as well as provide an avenue for devs that care about user experience to have a channel to understand what needs might not be being met by existing offerings. - [0] Image example here => https://stackoverflow.com/a/45680175 https://stackoverflow.com/a/45680175
  - framp 8y ago
    I can't speak for GTK as I don't use it much, but there are Qt engines that let you configure all the options without needing to write a theme. I never went that way as I prefer to just use a theme designed by someone who knew what they were doing.
    - Folcon 8y ago
      That could work, not sure how discoverable that is to the end user though...

by Folcon 8y ago

secure 8y ago

The look & feel of applications can be changed by using GTK or Qt themes and there’s entire websites dedicated to sharing these. Isn’t this what you describe? Side note: Window managers are only responsible for the window decoration, i.e. the frame around the contents and the title bar. Not a lot to tweak there, but most window managers do actually allow changing pretty much every aspect of it. GTK/Qt are toolkits, not window managers.

Folcon 8y ago
Right, but that seems to be something that requires the user specifically to be a dev? And to know how to compile each program they need to tweak? I'm thinking of something where say I load up a program UI Tweak, I don't need to know anything about the software I'm working with, I just select the element that I want to adjust, the label sizes for text in the dialogue, or the colour of the text by clicking on it. Think Autohotkey's spy tool[0], when using Autohotkey with the spy tool, I just select the elements that I want to manipulate and then choose what I want to do with them. In my opinion, this significantly lowers barriers to entry for users wanting to change things to suit them. Then the developers of such software can work out ways of making apps work better with such a system. Maybe linux based UI apps need to improve their api so that they can take instructions to adjust it? Or they just add some simple hooks the UI Tweak can understand and use to adjust behaviour? I don't know what users will want, but allowing users to describe what they want, letting them know it's possible, and giving them an avenue to share and communicate their needs can only help improve the quality of the software, as well as provide an avenue for devs that care about user experience to have a channel to understand what needs might not be being met by existing offerings. - [0] Image example here => https://stackoverflow.com/a/45680175 https://stackoverflow.com/a/45680175
- framp 8y ago
  I can't speak for GTK as I don't use it much, but there are Qt engines that let you configure all the options without needing to write a theme. I never went that way as I prefer to just use a theme designed by someone who knew what they were doing.
  - Folcon 8y ago
    That could work, not sure how discoverable that is to the end user though...