Subject: Re: Klunky X
From: Jim Cole (greyleaf@yggdrasill.net)
Date: Fri Jun 16 2000 - 19:01:31 MDT
Scott Piccotti's bits of Fri, 16 Jun 2000 translated to:
>
>> Anyone else have an ugly desktop or is it just me?
>>
>
>As far as I know, Linux today doesn't have any GUI niceties like
>anti-aliased text (or really nice widgets). In MacOS, this is based on Adobe
>TypeManager. I can just barely tolerate working in Gnome/KDE as is comes on
>the YDL CD. Often I find it preferable to just work from the shell. It's
>ugly. And I don't know of any way around it. The linux box I use, I
>generally run headless anyway.
>
><rant>
>The linux community in general seems so fixated on bare-metal functionality
>that they tend to consider GUI a waste of resources or a fun side project.In
>a way, they're right. Tell me how any open-source GUI (unless guided by
>brilliant desiger/engineers) will ever compete with Aqua.
>
>This is why I'm looking forward to OS X. UNIX-type flexibility and power
>(mach kernel) with suberb interface design. Let's face it, folks, the GUI is
>what 99% of users will spend 99% of their time looking at. Now: how much
>development effort does that deserve?
></rant>
I think your rant is a bit unfair. To imply that the Linux community
does not care about the graphical interface is just wrong. Other than
the kernel and improved installation, I cannot think of any single
aspect of a typical Linux distro that has received more attention over
the last couple years. The graphical interface is the key to growth in
the desktop arena. People know this. People are working very hard to
address this issue. And in my opinion, they are doing a good job.
I guess I can't understand your implication that your Linux desktops are,
for all practical purposes, unusable. I find the setup I use to be quite
adequate for my needs. Fast, flexible, convenient. Not so much in the
way of eye candy, but that isn't something I have any need for. I would
have to guess that you either have some configuration problems or we
simply have radically different biases ;) Personally I think the MacOS
interface perfectly defines the notion of tedious. Maybe OS X/Aqua will
live up to the hype, someday, when it is actually released. I am looking
forward to finding out.
As for the original post, I would suggest taking some time to study up on
what is available and the numerous ways things can be configured. Maybe
even check your hardware setup to verify that you are using resolution,
color depth, etc. to best advantage. I certainly don't consider my
desktop to be ugly, but then again, maybe you would =)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2a24 : Fri Jun 16 2000 - 18:49:15 MDT