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Been a few years since I’ve used Gnome, I hadn’t realized they’d pivoted so much to following MacOS. It looks like they’ve taken a lot of the best parts of Mac

Been a few years since I’ve used Gnome, I hadn’t realized they’d pivoted so much to following MacOS. It looks like they’ve taken a lot of the best parts of MacOS and built something really nice atop it.

joana035 6y ago
s/MacOS/webOS/g from Palm
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  You need to check your dates. MacOS’s fundamental look has a pretty consistent chain all the way back to NextOS in the 90s. The Dock, the dot indicator, and many other core pieces are visible in versions of MacOS which predate the launch of webOS. MacOS borrows some bits from webOS as well, but the fundamental Dock layout is right out of NextStep.
  - joana035 6y ago
    I didn't mention any dates, and I believe it doesn't need to be the one who came first to inspire others ;)
    - ogre_codes 6y ago
      Well what I meant to say is they were both inspired by the OS I'm going to release next year.
symlinkk 6y ago
It’s been like this since Gnome 3 was released in 2011. This is why I've always been confused by people who say Linux has an “ugly, inconsistent, unprofessional” UI - to me this looks and feels better than Windows.
- reader_mode 6y ago
  Gnome is just one part of the story - the gnome shell was always decent looking and had good themes. But the apps and the ecosystem really is ugly, messy and inconsistent. For example if you look at the controls you got with GTK out of the box in GTK3 era (when I last tried to build something with it) I remember huge paddings, unintuitive UX (the GTK file picker is the worst I've used) and poor layout controls. Go check out an app like https://inkscape.org https://inkscape.org and compare it to something like Illustrator or Gnome to Photoshop. The messy jumbled stacks of options with huge icons and paddings instead of being condensed and easy to use - most of it stems from GTK controls being bad. Now this is all with a huge disclaimer that I haven't used a Linux desktop in over 5 years at this point, maybe things got better but I doubt it - I still use Inkscape for example from time to time and Gimp on OSX and putting the non-native issues aside the apps look terrible on their own because of what I already said.
  - ogre_codes 6y ago
    Unfortunately, it feels like everything is turning into what Linux was 10 years ago. MacOS is better, but the increasing dominance of Electron and Java apps which bring their own UIs into whatever eco-system they encounter is very frustrating. If you are stuck running MS apps on the Mac, they are their own micro-cosm as well.
    - vetinari 6y ago
      This was always the case: MS Office used its own widgets since about 1995 on both platforms; Adobe has their own UI controls, and even Apple used custom/dark themes and controls for their pro apps since about forever. The current state of Apple App Store app is just the cherry on the top.
      - ogre_codes 6y ago
        I don’t use Adobe, so for me, the big culprit has always been MS Office and I’ve been able to mostly avoid it for years. I’m looking more at Slack, VSCode, and other “Essential” apps which have displaced Mac Native tools like BBEdit and if you squint hard, Adium.
dgllghr 6y ago
Yea gnome gets a lot of hate, but I've been using it as a daily driver for a few years and I have a slick, productive workflow with minimal customization. It's free software, it looks nice, and every release is a nice improvement.
legulere 6y ago
I have the feeling it also happened the other way around as well. When Gnome 3 came out the big buttons and huge whitespace seemed ridiculous, especially with Big Sur MacOS looks very similar.
- pseudalopex 6y ago
  Apple doing it doesn't make it better.
niutech 6y ago
Have a look at elementary OS (https://elementary.io https://elementary.io), it's much more resembling MacOS.

joana035 6y ago

s/MacOS/webOS/g from Palm

ogre_codes 6y ago
You need to check your dates. MacOS’s fundamental look has a pretty consistent chain all the way back to NextOS in the 90s. The Dock, the dot indicator, and many other core pieces are visible in versions of MacOS which predate the launch of webOS. MacOS borrows some bits from webOS as well, but the fundamental Dock layout is right out of NextStep.
- joana035 6y ago
  I didn't mention any dates, and I believe it doesn't need to be the one who came first to inspire others ;)
  - ogre_codes 6y ago
    Well what I meant to say is they were both inspired by the OS I'm going to release next year.

symlinkk 6y ago

It’s been like this since Gnome 3 was released in 2011. This is why I've always been confused by people who say Linux has an “ugly, inconsistent, unprofessional” UI - to me this looks and feels better than Windows.

reader_mode 6y ago
Gnome is just one part of the story - the gnome shell was always decent looking and had good themes. But the apps and the ecosystem really is ugly, messy and inconsistent. For example if you look at the controls you got with GTK out of the box in GTK3 era (when I last tried to build something with it) I remember huge paddings, unintuitive UX (the GTK file picker is the worst I've used) and poor layout controls. Go check out an app like https://inkscape.org https://inkscape.org and compare it to something like Illustrator or Gnome to Photoshop. The messy jumbled stacks of options with huge icons and paddings instead of being condensed and easy to use - most of it stems from GTK controls being bad. Now this is all with a huge disclaimer that I haven't used a Linux desktop in over 5 years at this point, maybe things got better but I doubt it - I still use Inkscape for example from time to time and Gimp on OSX and putting the non-native issues aside the apps look terrible on their own because of what I already said.
- ogre_codes 6y ago
  Unfortunately, it feels like everything is turning into what Linux was 10 years ago. MacOS is better, but the increasing dominance of Electron and Java apps which bring their own UIs into whatever eco-system they encounter is very frustrating. If you are stuck running MS apps on the Mac, they are their own micro-cosm as well.
  - vetinari 6y ago
    This was always the case: MS Office used its own widgets since about 1995 on both platforms; Adobe has their own UI controls, and even Apple used custom/dark themes and controls for their pro apps since about forever. The current state of Apple App Store app is just the cherry on the top.
    - ogre_codes 6y ago
      I don’t use Adobe, so for me, the big culprit has always been MS Office and I’ve been able to mostly avoid it for years. I’m looking more at Slack, VSCode, and other “Essential” apps which have displaced Mac Native tools like BBEdit and if you squint hard, Adium.

dgllghr 6y ago

Yea gnome gets a lot of hate, but I've been using it as a daily driver for a few years and I have a slick, productive workflow with minimal customization. It's free software, it looks nice, and every release is a nice improvement.

legulere 6y ago

I have the feeling it also happened the other way around as well. When Gnome 3 came out the big buttons and huge whitespace seemed ridiculous, especially with Big Sur MacOS looks very similar.

pseudalopex 6y ago
Apple doing it doesn't make it better.

niutech 6y ago

Have a look at elementary OS (https://elementary.io https://elementary.io), it's much more resembling MacOS.