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Holy cow, what an ugly user interface. I mean, it wasn't exactly a Matisse before, but it's just hideous now on macOS. Who thought "easy to use" rhymed with "m

Holy cow, what an ugly user interface. I mean, it wasn't exactly a Matisse before, but it's just hideous now on macOS. Who thought "easy to use" rhymed with "make the icons look like nearly identical and somewhat indistinguishable blue squares"? Who decided that an already rather unprofessional drawing of Tux needed to be transformed into Baby's First Vector Drawing™? And why, when previous versions already did a semi-respectable job of at least _pretending_ to look like a native Cocoa app on macOS, does version 6 not only regress its implementation of the Aqua theme down to everything-is-grey but do so by getting rid of the gradient that emulated NSToolbar on most settings windows whilst then _adding_ ugly gradients to the list of VM settings on the main window in place of the vastly more functional rounded rectangles with separate headers of previous versions? You see, if it's possible to regress the user interface so badly _when it was already fine_, I don't hold much hope for the rest of the technology. Call me a snob, but it reeks of sloppiness.

wyclif 8y ago
I just downloaded/updated it for macOS and then set up a fresh Debian Stretch VM on it. Wow, you weren't kidding, it's still a hideous UI and it looks like they haven't even tried to make it look anything like a native app.
jf- 8y ago
Exactly the kind of nitpicking negativity I expected to see when I opened the thread. It’s an app for running VMs, not a piece of consumer software, it’s not being marketed based on how it looks. Say what you will about oracle’s business practises, but it’s a crying shame that this is the top comment. Edit: was top comment. Crying shame averted.
- slantyyz 8y ago
  >> It’s an app for running VMs, not a piece of consumer software On Macs, Fusion and Parallels are arguably consumer software. In the early days of x86 on Mac, they were the carrot to lure a lot of non-technical people who used Windows at work to get a Mac. Since there are a lot of people who gravitate towards "free as in beer" software, you can't not expect a Mac user to at least look at VirtualBox as a consumer app. There are probably plenty of Mac oriented listicles that recommend VirtualBox as a free option for running Windows VMs on Mac.
  - secabeen 8y ago
    Yep. We're in the edu space, and we regularly recommend VBox to Mac users who want to run a single Windows application on their Mac. Fusion and Parallels are both better, but for intermittent use, free VBox wins out over $80-$100 Fusion/Parallels.
- gsich 8y ago
  >not a piece of consumer software What is it then?
- zapzupnz 8y ago
  What a load of rubbish. If an app has a GUI that __was perfectly fine__, there’s no legitimate reason for it to regress. Somehow, VMware and Parallels managed to understand and act this for the past decade in their macOS _and_ Windows offerings for consumers, so I expect a big company like Oracle to not screw up the basics of user interface design, regressions of any kind, and treating a major platform and its users with a minimal amount of respect.
rashomon 8y ago
> Call me a snob, but it reeks of sloppiness. Snob. The utility of the application far outweighs the aesthetics.
- zapzupnz 8y ago
  I really rally against people who think user interface design is __just__ aesthetics. How software looks and how software _feel_ are intimately linked, and go a long way to how much people get out of said software. What use is utility when that utility is locked away behind regressions in usability?
ldehaan 8y ago
Let me guess you code in ruby and use a macbook air.
- berbec 8y ago
  ipad pro
- zapzupnz 8y ago
  Swift and Typescript on a 27” iMac. What does that have to do with it?
teekert 8y ago
I like how it looks on Windows. It looks cleaner, more modern, Not super modern with those animated gradients but nicer than it was.
self_awareness 8y ago
I agree with you. More than that, drawing is bugged, and sometimes it won't fill out empty spaces in the window. Or, another times, it draws too much and sometimes it covers buttons on the toolbar, so I see a beautiful grey rectangle instead of the toolbar. It's slow as hell. I wish it was done in Electron, then it would be faster. Scrolling through the VM log is very slow.

wyclif 8y ago

I just downloaded/updated it for macOS and then set up a fresh Debian Stretch VM on it. Wow, you weren't kidding, it's still a hideous UI and it looks like they haven't even tried to make it look anything like a native app.

jf- 8y ago

Exactly the kind of nitpicking negativity I expected to see when I opened the thread. It’s an app for running VMs, not a piece of consumer software, it’s not being marketed based on how it looks. Say what you will about oracle’s business practises, but it’s a crying shame that this is the top comment. Edit: was top comment. Crying shame averted.

slantyyz 8y ago
>> It’s an app for running VMs, not a piece of consumer software On Macs, Fusion and Parallels are arguably consumer software. In the early days of x86 on Mac, they were the carrot to lure a lot of non-technical people who used Windows at work to get a Mac. Since there are a lot of people who gravitate towards "free as in beer" software, you can't not expect a Mac user to at least look at VirtualBox as a consumer app. There are probably plenty of Mac oriented listicles that recommend VirtualBox as a free option for running Windows VMs on Mac.
- secabeen 8y ago
  Yep. We're in the edu space, and we regularly recommend VBox to Mac users who want to run a single Windows application on their Mac. Fusion and Parallels are both better, but for intermittent use, free VBox wins out over $80-$100 Fusion/Parallels.
gsich 8y ago
>not a piece of consumer software What is it then?
zapzupnz 8y ago
What a load of rubbish. If an app has a GUI that __was perfectly fine__, there’s no legitimate reason for it to regress. Somehow, VMware and Parallels managed to understand and act this for the past decade in their macOS _and_ Windows offerings for consumers, so I expect a big company like Oracle to not screw up the basics of user interface design, regressions of any kind, and treating a major platform and its users with a minimal amount of respect.

rashomon 8y ago

> Call me a snob, but it reeks of sloppiness. Snob. The utility of the application far outweighs the aesthetics.

zapzupnz 8y ago
I really rally against people who think user interface design is __just__ aesthetics. How software looks and how software _feel_ are intimately linked, and go a long way to how much people get out of said software. What use is utility when that utility is locked away behind regressions in usability?

ldehaan 8y ago

Let me guess you code in ruby and use a macbook air.

berbec 8y ago
ipad pro
zapzupnz 8y ago
Swift and Typescript on a 27” iMac. What does that have to do with it?

teekert 8y ago

I like how it looks on Windows. It looks cleaner, more modern, Not super modern with those animated gradients but nicer than it was.

self_awareness 8y ago

I agree with you. More than that, drawing is bugged, and sometimes it won't fill out empty spaces in the window. Or, another times, it draws too much and sometimes it covers buttons on the toolbar, so I see a beautiful grey rectangle instead of the toolbar. It's slow as hell. I wish it was done in Electron, then it would be faster. Scrolling through the VM log is very slow.