Why are the default installations so ugly?

[Tristan_Williams]

This may be just my opinion, but it seems as though the default installations for pretty much all of the distros (Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, etc...) are realy ugly.

Take Xubuntu, for example.
awndock.png
Who ACTUALLY leaves their desktop like this?

My point is, don't you think people would be more inclined to join the Linux world if we didn't have desktops that looked like they came from 20 years ago?



Opinions?

[monkeybrain20122]

Well I agree that xubuntu is ugly. But the default installation of Ubuntu is beautiful. I leave mine pretty much as default The launcher has not been populated yet since this is just a 14.04 test installation. See screenshot

My point is, don't you think people would be more inclined to join the Linux world if we didn't have desktops that looked like they came from 20 years ago?

well I think the 'classic look' (i.e looking like something from 20 years ago) is exactly the selling point of Xfce and Mate, not to mention Trinity (kde3). It doesn't appeal to me but they cater to their markets

[craig10x]

Not to start any "war" here but the standard ubuntu install with the unity desktop is (in my opinion) the most attractive linux desktop i have ever seen in all my years running linux (7 yrs)...
Pretty and polished enough to compete with commercial systems...to me, all the others look dated and old fashioned...sorry to be blunt about it, but that's how i feel! In my younger years, i had a brief experience with graphic arts (printing) and i have an "eye" for these kind of things and that's the way ubuntu w/unity strikes me...and i think it would attract people over from windows and mac...
The fonts, colors, the icons in the launcher and dash, etc have the "eye candy" people like...plus it is easy to use and very logically laid out...

[Elfy]

This may be just my opinion, but it seems as though the default installations for pretty much all of the distros (Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, etc...) are realy ugly.

Take Xubuntu, for example.
awndock.png
Who ACTUALLY leaves their desktop like this?

My point is, don't you think people would be more inclined to join the Linux world if we didn't have desktops that looked like they came from 20 years ago?



Opinions?

What you can do is Get Involved.

Then people can blame you

[monkeybrain20122]

The funny thing is, Debian is butt ugly out of the box no matter which DE it uses. Gnome shell looks beautiful on Fedora and Manjaro, but not on Debian. Though not a big fan of kde but I admit that it does look polished on openSuse, it is ok in Kubuntu and Fedora's KDE spin. But again it is butt ugly on Debian, Ugliness is the trademark of Debian.

[john_burns2]

Thing is,,, How many people using ******* or Mac OS use the default desktop? Not many I reckon. So why should Linux be any different? First thing I did was to change my desktop background, then hide the launcher. Have a look at the monthly desktops people post on here. Some are fantastic and in no way reflect the default desktops of their installation.

[Jake_Paine]

At the risk of getting shot... I think Unity is pretty ugly too. Gnome 3 on the other hand is fantastic - Looks really fresh and modern. I can't get enough of it haha

My desktop is just standard with a default Ubuntu Gnome wallpaper.

[David_Wright]

I don't really get this obsession with "what does the desktop look like?"

I'm a newcomer and am running Lubuntu on two PCs - selected for its lightness as they are old/netbook but kept, so far, because it's fast and functional.

Because I'm a newcomer, I've been both experimenting and thinking about what I actually want. And it's this:
- Speed
- A dock/panel/equivalent to launch programs

And actually, that is more or less it. I spend all day at work on a Win7 laptop, and I never see or use the desktop on that either - what I'm doing is using programs.

(I confess to installing and playing with Conky, which I think is a fantastic live system monitor, but it's not really essential.)

[vasa1]

I don't really get this obsession with "what does the desktop look like?"
...

It's fashionable to criticize

[Jake_Paine]

As a designer/dev by trade I can't have or use things that don't look pretty!