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How KDE VDG Is Trying To Make Open-Source Software Beautiful

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  • How KDE VDG Is Trying To Make Open-Source Software Beautiful

    Phoronix: How KDE VDG Is Trying To Make Open-Source Software Beautiful

    One of the most often voiced complaints about Open Source Software is that it tends to be "ugly" or otherwise aesthetically uninspired. A few years ago a few people in the KDE camp came together and created, what they hoped, would be a solution to that problem: The KDE Visual Design Group.

    Phoronix, Linux Hardware Reviews, Linux hardware benchmarks, Linux server benchmarks, Linux benchmarking, Desktop Linux, Linux performance, Open Source graphics, Linux How To, Ubuntu benchmarks, Ubuntu hardware, Phoronix Test Suite

  • #2
    We definitely would benefit from having more of those groups. Simply looking better would make a lot of people transition to free/libre software.

    Similarly, many libre software projects would benefit from having prettier/more functional Web sites.

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Calinou View Post
      We definitely would benefit from having more of those groups. Simply looking better would make a lot of people transition to free/libre software.
      Similarly, many libre software projects would benefit from having prettier/more functional Web sites.
      Wholeheartedly agree. Now we just need the developers to allocate a person/time towards actually implementing these designs! I've been watching the VDG talk about the system settings for a year now, but KDE's settings still look like in Plasma 4.

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      • #4
        My only problem with software development in Linux, is the tools we have, look at Windows, how easy is to make an application, linux has a lot to learn about dev accessibility shit

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        • #5
          I never found open source software to be that ugly unless it used some barebone X11 structuring or something like tkinter. Qt3 and GTK2 were pretty bland but slightly more exciting than the Windows XP look. I remember back around 2008, when Ubuntu really started gaining popularity, people transitioned BECAUSE of the eye-candy. They didn't really care about anything else, they were just like "hey look what I can do for free". After the novelty got old, they started whining about things like firefox running slow (because they used the wine version) and basically expected it to act like Windows.

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          • #6
            Originally posted by Scellow View Post
            My only problem with software development in Linux, is the tools we have, look at Windows, how easy is to make an application, linux has a lot to learn about dev accessibility shit
            I can see where people might think that if they don't have exposure to it, but it's just not true. There are at least 40 IDEs, at least 10 of them are damn good, and at least 4 of them are best in their class.

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            • #7
              Very beautiful..... phoronix watermarks!

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Calinou View Post
                We definitely would benefit from having more of those groups. Simply looking better would make a lot of people transition to free/libre software.

                Similarly, many libre software projects would benefit from having prettier/more functional Web sites.
                For me it's not only a matter of "looking better" it's also a matter of coherence in OS applications, tray icons, menus, ecc.

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                • #9
                  The VDG does much more than visual design. They seem to provide suggestions to make applications more usable by:

                  1. Reordering the controls that match a typical user workflow
                  2. Hiding or minimizing seldom used features
                  3. Reconsidering the fundamental presentation by introducing broad new paradigms ( e.g. panel view vs. Tree view)

                  It is good to have a second set of well trained eyes to review apps to help make them better. The fact that these reviewers aren't too familiar or close to any particular application is a benefit, as developers can get myopic about their implementation and how their ux integrates with a much larger suite of packages.

                  KDE 5 has been quite a treat. I look forward to further improvements thanks to this team.

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                  • #10
                    Thats great, Im glad people in the linux world are finally concerned about this, we need more reasons for people to try linux and like it. Now we need similars efforts in the GTK side.

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