9 ms·

it's personally why I don't like KDE. I have no nostalgia for the old school windows desktop and it feels like something designed by a Soviet Design bureau comb

it's personally why I don't like KDE. I have no nostalgia for the old school windows desktop and it feels like something designed by a Soviet Design bureau combined with an airplane cockpit. There's always three different menus to change the same thing and buttons everywhere. GNOME goes a little bit overboard sometimes with the simplification but it just feels so much cleaner out of the box.

sph 4y ago
Yes and no. I would use KDE if either they went full Windows 98 in their style, or modern slick like GNOME. Instead they have this bland Windows 10 flat look that has no personality. The familiar Windows 98 gray had saturation, constrast and even a touch if colour (the gray tends a bit towards the red) The modern KDE look is a diluted flat gray/desaturated cerulean blue which I really do not like. So uninspired, cold, clinical, corporate, clashing with that friendly look they want KDE to represent. It is uncanny, and while the GNOME design team loves to change stuff just for the sake of it, they have more taste and eye that whoever runs the design team at KDE. Can we have a desktop that doesn't look like a poster that's been left in the sun for too long? Can we have contrast back and more colours than just light gray and light blue?
- jraph 4y ago
  I like KDE's default theme and color scheme very much, but you can fine tune the colors to your taste or pick a Windows 9x-like theme :-)
- kitsunesoba 4y ago
  Part of what gives the default KDE theme that feel you describe I think is its usage of transparent grays. Generally when you do transparency in UI it needs to be transparent white or transparent black (though in some case, dark transparent gray can work), because transparent mid-grays make everything feel kinda dingy, with whatever's showing through feeling like it's being seen through a thick fog on a dark rainy day.
- int_19h 4y ago
  By default, Win98 used the same gray as Win95 (#C0C0C0). If I remember correctly, it was Win2K that made it warmer, and it was definitely an improvement.
- seba_dos1 4y ago
  The out-of-box look isn't exactly great, but I'm using Breeze Twilight theme (dark shell + light apps) and Breeze Classic color scheme - and it doesn't feel that way anymore at all. Both are available by default in system settings, and you can even set a custom accent color there.
ssnistfajen 4y ago
They both have their strengths. I prefer KDE on desktops with larger monitors while GNOME feels very clean and uncluttered on laptop screens.

sph 4y ago

Yes and no. I would use KDE if either they went full Windows 98 in their style, or modern slick like GNOME. Instead they have this bland Windows 10 flat look that has no personality. The familiar Windows 98 gray had saturation, constrast and even a touch if colour (the gray tends a bit towards the red) The modern KDE look is a diluted flat gray/desaturated cerulean blue which I really do not like. So uninspired, cold, clinical, corporate, clashing with that friendly look they want KDE to represent. It is uncanny, and while the GNOME design team loves to change stuff just for the sake of it, they have more taste and eye that whoever runs the design team at KDE. Can we have a desktop that doesn't look like a poster that's been left in the sun for too long? Can we have contrast back and more colours than just light gray and light blue?

jraph 4y ago
I like KDE's default theme and color scheme very much, but you can fine tune the colors to your taste or pick a Windows 9x-like theme :-)
kitsunesoba 4y ago
Part of what gives the default KDE theme that feel you describe I think is its usage of transparent grays. Generally when you do transparency in UI it needs to be transparent white or transparent black (though in some case, dark transparent gray can work), because transparent mid-grays make everything feel kinda dingy, with whatever's showing through feeling like it's being seen through a thick fog on a dark rainy day.
int_19h 4y ago
By default, Win98 used the same gray as Win95 (#C0C0C0). If I remember correctly, it was Win2K that made it warmer, and it was definitely an improvement.
seba_dos1 4y ago
The out-of-box look isn't exactly great, but I'm using Breeze Twilight theme (dark shell + light apps) and Breeze Classic color scheme - and it doesn't feel that way anymore at all. Both are available by default in system settings, and you can even set a custom accent color there.

ssnistfajen 4y ago

They both have their strengths. I prefer KDE on desktops with larger monitors while GNOME feels very clean and uncluttered on laptop screens.