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The UI consistency of most Linux distros is better out of the box. 2021 the year of the Linux desktop? /s

by cies 5y ago

AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y ago
Ironically Linux's relative consistency is in part due to the long standing complaint about how inconsistent it was, which motivated developers to create ways to have unified theming across toolkits. Meanwhile, the rest of the world went full derp and decided that UI consistency is for boring people who like to actually get things done with a computer.
- WorldMaker 5y ago
  To add to the irony too, because Linux was so inconsistent for so long more of the GUI toolkits also had to adapt better to fluctuating layouts and had fewer reasons to hard-code specific pixel sizes for controls (because one person's theme might use hugely different sizes than the next person). Microsoft found out the hard way with Windows XP that Win32 controls generally can't be rethemed in ways that change the pixel counts because they were consistent for so long that apps did all sorts of (sometimes very dumb) pixel-specific logic. Microsoft's commitment to backwards compatibility makes any consistency in theming Win32 controls near impossible without application developer buy-in, and buy in of XAML and actually adaptive layouts has still been extremely slow overall even if you can discount how long pixel-perfect RAD tools with zero adaptive layout support dominated early Windows development (including and especially VB <= 6).
marcodiego 5y ago
Consistency is not something windows users expect. In the "windows world" most software is downloaded from different sources, different vendors, different styles and each tries to stand out. The result: every program is different in appearance and behaviour.
- cies 5y ago
  I did not use it much after W98SE. W98SE was very consistent imho.
  - marcodiego 5y ago
    Office 97 had a different style. Most commonly used programs had different sytles: winamp had its own UI, IE had it own theme, winfile had different icons... Yes, system and default apps were somewhat consistent. But out of the box, a win9x installation was very poor with regard to installed software; you had to install more things if you wanted you computer to be useful. And the consistency went away.

The UI consistency of most Linux distros is better out of the box. 2021 the year of the Linux desktop? /s

by cies 5y ago

The UI consistency of most Linux distros is better out of the box. 2021 the year of the Linux desktop? /s

Ironically Linux's relative consistency is in part due to the long standing complaint about how inconsistent it was, which motivated developers to create ways to have unified theming across toolkits. Meanwhile, the rest of the world went full derp and decided that UI consistency is for boring people who like to actually get things done with a computer.

WorldMaker 5y ago
To add to the irony too, because Linux was so inconsistent for so long more of the GUI toolkits also had to adapt better to fluctuating layouts and had fewer reasons to hard-code specific pixel sizes for controls (because one person's theme might use hugely different sizes than the next person). Microsoft found out the hard way with Windows XP that Win32 controls generally can't be rethemed in ways that change the pixel counts because they were consistent for so long that apps did all sorts of (sometimes very dumb) pixel-specific logic. Microsoft's commitment to backwards compatibility makes any consistency in theming Win32 controls near impossible without application developer buy-in, and buy in of XAML and actually adaptive layouts has still been extremely slow overall even if you can discount how long pixel-perfect RAD tools with zero adaptive layout support dominated early Windows development (including and especially VB <= 6).

marcodiego 5y ago

Consistency is not something windows users expect. In the "windows world" most software is downloaded from different sources, different vendors, different styles and each tries to stand out. The result: every program is different in appearance and behaviour.

cies 5y ago
I did not use it much after W98SE. W98SE was very consistent imho.
- marcodiego 5y ago
  Office 97 had a different style. Most commonly used programs had different sytles: winamp had its own UI, IE had it own theme, winfile had different icons... Yes, system and default apps were somewhat consistent. But out of the box, a win9x installation was very poor with regard to installed software; you had to install more things if you wanted you computer to be useful. And the consistency went away.