29 ms·

> The reliance on crusty old ass applications like those on Windows is actually kinda depressing. macOS is the most consistent OS and Windows the least [1]. Wi

by mikae1 2y ago

> The reliance on crusty old ass applications like those on Windows is actually kinda depressing. macOS is the most consistent OS and Windows the least [1]. With the exception of IrfanView I find neither of those apps particularly crusty though. There's https://imageglass.org https://imageglass.org I personally moved from macOS to KDE Plasma and I'm a happy camper as long as I stay with Plasma/Qt apps. [1] https://ntdev.blog/2021/02/06/state-of-the-windows-how-many-layers-of-ui-inconsistencies-are-in-windows-10/ https://ntdev.blog/2021/02/06/state-of-the-windows-how-many-...

BobaFloutist 2y ago
VLC is pretty damn crusty, especially to anyone not familiar with that particular....design ethos. Don't get me wrong, it's an incredible endeavor and the developers deserve endless praise, but for people that aren't already familiar with navigating things like GIMP, KDE, Open/LibreOffice, it's not especially welcoming.
- DCH3416 2y ago
  You critics stay away from VLC. I swear if I have to deal with another "modern" UI implementation.
- JohnFen 2y ago
  > for people that aren't already familiar with navigating things like GIMP, KDE, Open/LibreOffice, it's not especially welcoming. This is true for all complex software, though. People who have never used Apple's software also struggle with it until they become more familiar.
  - dmurray 2y ago
    Is VLC really "complex software" if you just want to use it as a media player? Double click your media file, it plays. Play, pause, volume controls are where you'd guess they are. There's plenty of complexity underneath, but the happy path is simple. By contrast, "open this image and draw a single red circle in it" in GIMP is as challenging to a newbie as quitting vi. Even for an intermediate user - I use GIMP a handful of times per year and I absolutely could not tell you from memory how to do that.
    - noch 2y ago
      > Is VLC really "complex software" The moment you criticize an app, someone on the Internet will jump in to tut-tut and insist to you that it's "complex software" and you can't possibly understand how complex it is. Case in point: Just a few years ago the Windows Terminal team chastised[^1] users by claiming that fast font rendering would literally require several PhDs of research and can't be solved otherwise[^0]. At some point we have to realize that claiming something is complex doesn't prove that it's inherently complex nor justify any complexity in how it was built. [^0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28743687 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28743687 [^1]: https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/10362#issuecomment-862844333 https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/10362#issuecomm...
      - 0cf8612b2e1e 2y ago
        You missed the updates to the text rendering story. The guy who requested the feature then went ahead and implemented the feature in a weekend. Something like a year later, Microsoft did actually improve the behavior and never credited the guy who proved it was possible.
        noch 2y ago
        > The guy who requested the feature then went ahead and implemented the feature in a weekend. Something like a year later, Microsoft did actually improve the behavior and never credited the guy who proved it was possible. Thanks for telling me about that development. I'm … speechless.
        satvikpendem 2y ago
        They eventually did credit "the guy," Casey Muratori, who's a very accomplished game engine developer. He has a series called Handmade Hero where he writes an engine and game from scratch and streams it live.
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
- asveikau 2y ago
  I don't think GIMP is a fair comparison to any of your other examples. VLC, KDE, and LibreOffice are all more intuitive than the GIMP.
- AlexandrB 2y ago
  I agree. I too am a VLC hater. It's not just crusty, but often buggy and worse[1] than alternatives (I use Media Player Classic Home Cinema myself, despite it being dead for almost a decade). VLC is also ugly in a non-platform specific way. It's like a web app developed before web apps were a thing and doesn't feel at home in either Windows, MacOS, or Linux. Having said that, VLC is still my last resort when nothing else can play a file. [1] One example is subtitle rendering. Last I checked VLC was just plain uglier than MPC-HC.
  - wholinator2 2y ago
    The only problem I've ever run into with VLC was on their Android app they hid the audio sync setting for basically no reason. Other than that, I've never had a problem with it. Maybe i just haven't been exposed to the magic of perfect media players but VLC is vastly more feature rich than the defaults, "just works", and i don't think it looks bad at all! In today's modern world of "UI Overhauls" (read: fucking everything up and taking away every useful power you had in the name of 'usability') it's basically god tier. The damn thing is stable, that's literally all i need. I'll learn the interface, just for the love of God don't change it every time i get used to it!
  - greenmartian 2y ago
    MPC-HC ain't dead. It's still getting a couple updates a month. https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc/releases https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc/releases
  - BlueTemplar 2y ago
    That's called Qt, and Qt is awesome, notably because it's fast. (Web apps wish they were this fast !) Also, please tell me you are not trying to take the standard IBM desktop Interface (File, Edit...) away ?
    - datavirtue 2y ago
      The cloud portals are rediculously slow. It's almost like I'm on a free tier paying $20k per month.
- vengefulduck 2y ago
  Have you used VLC on MacOS tho? Full screen video looks very slick and is tough to differentiate from native quicktime other than having support for more codecs and features. The non full screen UI is a little more crusty but still looks better than the windows version imo.

by mikae1 2y ago

BobaFloutist 2y ago

VLC is pretty damn crusty, especially to anyone not familiar with that particular....design ethos. Don't get me wrong, it's an incredible endeavor and the developers deserve endless praise, but for people that aren't already familiar with navigating things like GIMP, KDE, Open/LibreOffice, it's not especially welcoming.

DCH3416 2y ago
You critics stay away from VLC. I swear if I have to deal with another "modern" UI implementation.
JohnFen 2y ago
> for people that aren't already familiar with navigating things like GIMP, KDE, Open/LibreOffice, it's not especially welcoming. This is true for all complex software, though. People who have never used Apple's software also struggle with it until they become more familiar.
- dmurray 2y ago
  Is VLC really "complex software" if you just want to use it as a media player? Double click your media file, it plays. Play, pause, volume controls are where you'd guess they are. There's plenty of complexity underneath, but the happy path is simple. By contrast, "open this image and draw a single red circle in it" in GIMP is as challenging to a newbie as quitting vi. Even for an intermediate user - I use GIMP a handful of times per year and I absolutely could not tell you from memory how to do that.
  - noch 2y ago
    > Is VLC really "complex software" The moment you criticize an app, someone on the Internet will jump in to tut-tut and insist to you that it's "complex software" and you can't possibly understand how complex it is. Case in point: Just a few years ago the Windows Terminal team chastised[^1] users by claiming that fast font rendering would literally require several PhDs of research and can't be solved otherwise[^0]. At some point we have to realize that claiming something is complex doesn't prove that it's inherently complex nor justify any complexity in how it was built. [^0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28743687 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28743687 [^1]: https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/10362#issuecomment-862844333 https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/10362#issuecomm...
    - 0cf8612b2e1e 2y ago
      You missed the updates to the text rendering story. The guy who requested the feature then went ahead and implemented the feature in a weekend. Something like a year later, Microsoft did actually improve the behavior and never credited the guy who proved it was possible.
      - noch 2y ago
        > The guy who requested the feature then went ahead and implemented the feature in a weekend. Something like a year later, Microsoft did actually improve the behavior and never credited the guy who proved it was possible. Thanks for telling me about that development. I'm … speechless.
        satvikpendem 2y ago
        They eventually did credit "the guy," Casey Muratori, who's a very accomplished game engine developer. He has a series called Handmade Hero where he writes an engine and game from scratch and streams it live.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
asveikau 2y ago
I don't think GIMP is a fair comparison to any of your other examples. VLC, KDE, and LibreOffice are all more intuitive than the GIMP.
AlexandrB 2y ago
I agree. I too am a VLC hater. It's not just crusty, but often buggy and worse[1] than alternatives (I use Media Player Classic Home Cinema myself, despite it being dead for almost a decade). VLC is also ugly in a non-platform specific way. It's like a web app developed before web apps were a thing and doesn't feel at home in either Windows, MacOS, or Linux. Having said that, VLC is still my last resort when nothing else can play a file. [1] One example is subtitle rendering. Last I checked VLC was just plain uglier than MPC-HC.
- wholinator2 2y ago
  The only problem I've ever run into with VLC was on their Android app they hid the audio sync setting for basically no reason. Other than that, I've never had a problem with it. Maybe i just haven't been exposed to the magic of perfect media players but VLC is vastly more feature rich than the defaults, "just works", and i don't think it looks bad at all! In today's modern world of "UI Overhauls" (read: fucking everything up and taking away every useful power you had in the name of 'usability') it's basically god tier. The damn thing is stable, that's literally all i need. I'll learn the interface, just for the love of God don't change it every time i get used to it!
- greenmartian 2y ago
  MPC-HC ain't dead. It's still getting a couple updates a month. https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc/releases https://github.com/clsid2/mpc-hc/releases
- BlueTemplar 2y ago
  That's called Qt, and Qt is awesome, notably because it's fast. (Web apps wish they were this fast !) Also, please tell me you are not trying to take the standard IBM desktop Interface (File, Edit...) away ?
  - datavirtue 2y ago
    The cloud portals are rediculously slow. It's almost like I'm on a free tier paying $20k per month.
vengefulduck 2y ago
Have you used VLC on MacOS tho? Full screen video looks very slick and is tough to differentiate from native quicktime other than having support for more codecs and features. The non full screen UI is a little more crusty but still looks better than the windows version imo.