Aesthetics of Ubuntu

[Vignesh S]

I would just like to know from this community of Ubuntu users (which I must say, is totally AWESOME!!! :-D) how many of you think Ubuntu looks good just after it is freshly installed. Personally, I think Ubuntu is getting there, but it could really do with a lot more improving to reach the smoothness of Windows 7 (even Mac OS X Leopard doesn't come close to MS, but I could be wrong in terms of Snow Leopard, since I haven't used that ;-)) Sorry MS and Apple haters, but these two guys have aesthetics quite sussed, especially MS in terms of Windows 7. I just feel like staying in my virtualised Win 7 forever! That's what I really hope Ubuntu can beat MS and Apple at one day, and I know that they have the potential to do that

But yeah, just would like a say from the Ubuntu community about how Ubuntu looks, and if it doesn't look good, what should be done to make it better (screenshots would also be great :-D)

[overdrank]

Moved to The Community Cafe

[speedwell68]

I don't like the default so I change the themes and what not. I don't bother with docks as they annoy me. Mine ends up like this...

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j185/Speedwell68/th_Screenshot-23.jpg (http://s80.photobucket.com/albums/j185/Speedwell68/?action=view&current=Screenshot-23.jpg)

[RandomJoe]

I don't particularly care how it looks out of the box, as it is so easy to change anyway. Fortunately, I'm not all that annoyed by the default look either. Less-used machines I'll leave it. The only thing I immediately change is the background - I always use a black background - but I do that on any OS, with any theme.

Many gripe about the brown. Perhaps a different color would work better, but I'm just glad it isn't BLUE! Got really tired of blue hues everywhere a long time ago...

[madnessjack]

There should be an option "it was so ugly it made my eyes bleed!" :P

Nah but seriously, Microsoft and Mac spend gazillions on their looks, Ubuntu's beauty is more on the inside :P

[-grubby]

It looks alright.

[SunnyRabbiera]

Personally I dont feel the crystalline looks of vista/7 to be all that amazing.
I like a mix of simplistic but functional, gnome does a fine job in that department.
For bling, there is always KDE.
openSUSE 11.2 looks and feels nice



Many gripe about the brown. Perhaps a different color would work better, but I'm just glad it isn't BLUE! Got really tired of blue hues everywhere a long time ago...

Yeh agree here, blue is way overused.

[joey-elijah]

I certainly feel that Karmic looked gorgeous out of the box - a different kind of beauty than other OSes, but beauty it was.

I do think it's time the initial appearance was... addressed with a bit more tact. Developers probably aren't the best versed designers in the world and may consider theming etc trivial, but first impressions really do count with Ma' and Pa' public - how do you think Vista still managed to sell despite the negative hoo-hah surrounding it? People were "wowed" by the looks of it.

Ubuntu isn't the worst look distro around (helly gNusense =P) but it is getting better with every release.

[koleoptero]

I tweak the hell out of it.

And I wonder why hasn't this been moved directly to the recurring discussions :lolflag:

[ZankerH]

There should be an option "it was so ugly it made my eyes bleed!" :P

quoted for truth.

I wish there was an option at install to just install the default gnome theme, no branding, no brown and no compiz.

[PuddingKnife]

I always immediately change it.

This is what I'm rocking lately:

137568

[praveesh]

I have heard that the new mandriva looks great and professional .

[Psumi]

It is pretty good to be honest. I will not like GNOME Shell at all.

[Andreas1]

this is going to end badly :-)
...or in the recurring discussions forum

doesn't mean there shouldn't be a discussion though, i too think ubuntu is not exactly pretty, but then again, i have never seen a good looking gnome desktop.

[praveesh]

this is going to end badly :-)
...or in the recurring discussions forum

doesn't mean there shouldn't be a discussion though, i too think ubuntu is not exactly pretty, but then again, i have never seen a good looking gnome desktop.

Yeah . Ubuntu is the best DEFAULT Gnome desktop . It was the Ubuntu that made me think that the Gnome menu can be made beautiful.

[RabbitWho]

I don' know about karmic because I haven't used it.. but that default my-dogs-poo-when-she-was-sick brown from 9.4 is so horrible. . . and i think it's the same with karmic.. Why can't it be chocolate brown? or earth brown? there are loads of nice browns.

And then they make GREY panels.
Now some shades of grey go with some shades of brown.. but now it just looks like my dog pooed in the sink.

What about the colour theme of the forum? That's tolerable! Why not something TOLERABLE that someone can actually handle for long enough before they change the colours.

I'm big on functionality! I am! But why choose those colours!? Why!


I always immediately change it.

This is what I'm rocking lately:

137568


That koala so has his hands in his holy place.

[PuddingKnife]

Where else did you think that wry smile was coming from?

[Shpongle]

I have heard that the new mandriva looks great and professional .

yea it does , you can see some screens on their site , the new suse is supposed to look really nice too . we have been telling them for long enough theyll change it eventually

[blueshiftoverwatch]

The first thing I do when setting up Linux is tweak the GUI to resemble Windows 95 as closely as possible and turn off most of the effects. So as far as I'm concerned all modern OS's have bad aesthetics to me.

[Andreas1]

resemble Windows 95

that's actually the only reason i do not use Raleigh :-)

[Vignesh S]

Well, nice to see the opinions of the Ubuntu community on the default look of Ubuntu 9.10 fresh after installation :-D. Personally, I think that Ubuntu, despite its cool notification system, looks crap out of the box, and the first thing I do after I install Ubuntu is change the looks of it to something a lot better

[Exodist]

I voted NO.
The default themes shipped with it barely looks better then Win98.

This IMHO is what Ubuntu should look closer to by default..
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_04pMYWw39X4/Sw9AN9YeCZI/AAAAAAAAAOY/I-BPJIz-ezk/s912/GL103-scrot.png

Here for Hi Res Image (http://lh5.ggpht.com/_04pMYWw39X4/Sw9AN9YeCZI/AAAAAAAAAOY/I-BPJIz-ezk/GL103-scrot.png)

[AllRadioisDead]

I'm not a fan of the "Sans" font for starters.
A lot of things in gnome look too "soft" for my liking. I guess a lot of the themes just don't really strike my fancy. I'd prefer for my desktop to look sharp and sleek.

[mikewhatever]

I think Ubuntu looks decent by default, but beg to differ about both Windows and Mac. I very much dislike the blueish-greenish look Windows has, as well as the steel-gray theme sported by OSX.

You could also search for 1001 previous discussions on the same subject.

[Vignesh S]

Judging by these responses, I guess it will be impossible for Ubuntu to make a default desktop that pleases the majority of people (but then again, the whole point of Linux is to hack around with and mess around with its innards :-D, and that could also include the way it looks)

[PryGuy]

I don't like the default so I change the themes and what not. I don't bother with docks as they annoy me. Mine ends up like this...

http://i80.photobucket.com/albums/j185/Speedwell68/th_Screenshot-23.jpg (http://s80.photobucket.com/albums/j185/Speedwell68/?action=view&current=Screenshot-23.jpg)

Looks nice! Could you give a link on the wallpaper you use please?

[mikewhatever]

Judging by these responses, I guess it will be impossible for Ubuntu to make a default desktop that pleases the majority of people (but then again, the whole point of Linux is to hack around with and mess around with its innards :-D, and that could also include the way it looks)

That's a funny conclusion, cause with all its looks, Ubuntu has managed to become the most popular Linux distro and gain the reputation of a user friendly distro. You may have been right, had the first impression been very important for many users, yet, Ubuntu's achievements show it isn't, and besides, the subject of aesthetics is extremely subjective.

[Ric_NYC]

"I don't care, functionality is more important to me"


That's the part that I really dislike about Ubuntu and Linux in general.

The lack of taste for a good design.


Ex: Blender... One of the ugliest interfaces of all times... "But I like it because of its funtionality"... Bleargh...

[clanky]

I voted don't care in the poll, although now that I actually come to put it in writing I'm not sure that it was the right choice.

The look and feel is important and I have to say that with the exception of the crappy default theme which is easily customisable I think 9.10 is a huge step in the right direction in terms of look and feel. It definitely has a bit more of a polished feel about it to me.

[Psumi]

"I don't care, functionality is more important to me"


That's the part that I really dislike about Ubuntu and Linux in general.

The lack of taste for a good design.


Ex: Blender... One of the ugliest interfaces of all times... "But I like it because of its funtionality"... Bleargh...

So you are saying Windows is better? Because, Windows and Mac are main stream. They get more attention.

[ElSlunko]

@op You really feel windows is ahead of OSX on design? That's kind of surprising, I usually don't see them in that order. By default windows looks unified but a few 3rd party installations & that's out the door.

Anyways, I most don't care because I have a 22" monitor and tend to have my programs maximized so I could be in either of the 3 OS's and not see a difference since I stare at content not borders.

That said I do wish Ubuntu would improve their look out of the box. They're a bit too nastoglic and make changes in this department like molasses. Being in gnome doesn't help either. I love gnome and used it for quite a while, but obviously it's look is dated because it's design is from a while back. It was a great looking DE when it was released and got better, but you don't look at W7 and think about Win XP looks, you appreciate the improvements that went into Aero and what not.

In the long run, however, I don't care. I like Linux's file management better & my photo editing programs run better in Linux so I'll be staying here.

[Ric_NYC]

So you are saying Windows is better? Because, Windows and Mac are main stream. They get more attention.

In terms of aesthetics Windows and Mac are far ahead of Linux.

The new KDE got a lot of improvements in its interface. It looks much better than Gnome.

[Vignesh S]

That's a funny conclusion, cause with all its looks, Ubuntu has managed to become the most popular Linux distro and gain the reputation of a user friendly distro. You may have been right, had the first impression been very important for many users, yet, Ubuntu's achievements show it isn't, and besides, the subject of aesthetics is extremely subjective.

Too true, but the thing is, if it were to look better out of the box and have a more refined feel, it would do even better, and Ubuntu's use would skyrocket even further.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Psumi
So you are saying Windows is better? Because, Windows and Mac are main stream. They get more attention.

Of course they get more attention, because they spend hundreds of millions, potentially billions to ensure that their OS is top dog in terms of the whole user experience

In terms of aesthetics Windows and Mac are far ahead of Linux.

The new KDE got a lot of improvements in its interface. It looks much better than Gnome.

Totally agree there, Ric_NYC. KDE looks great out of the box and they have the whole transparency thing sussed, though for some reason, I don't find it as easy to customise as GNOME... don't get me wrong, I could be incorrect with that, but just my personal view on it.

But still, GNOME seriously needs more transparency. The default look feels so clunky. At least they could make the two bars transparent by default, surely it can't be that hard to do that...

If one has used Windows 7, and compared that to Ubuntu 9.10's default look, then you can immediately see that Windows AERO totally outshines it in terms of smoothness (though yes, Compiz special effects makes up for it somewhat, especially in wobbly windows, but that's not quite out of the box, is it now?), though the notification system destroys Windows' ways of notifying the user if something's going on...