"Roy Schestowitz" <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> stated in post
4314472.cJacC4uzYn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on 10/20/08 1:14 PM:
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> ____/ Snit on Monday 20 October 2008 17:39 : \____
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>> Right now desktop Linux lacks the choice to
>> have a unified and well thought-out UI across the whole desktop.
>
> Like KDE/Qt?
>
> How many toolkits are there in Windows and Mac OS X? Don't pretend that
> everything is written in VS and Cocoa.
For OS X essentially *all* software the general user will ever see uses the
Aqua UI. The exception to this used to be Classic apps... but those are no
longer supported.
A number of people do run Windows on their Macs, too, but by default they do
not run at the same time and running Windows is not the norm.
On Linux, however, the norm is to have a mish-mash of different UIs... and
programs that use the UI guidelines they are theoretically designed for only
poorly. My screenshots are now a bit outdated, but here are examples of
what I mean:
>From PCLOS:
Poorly done menus
<http://tmp.gallopinginsanity.com/PCLOS-menu.pdf>
Poorly done dialogs:
<http://tmp.gallopinginsanity.com/PCLOS.pdf>
Poorly done and Inconsistent dialogs:
<http://tmp.gallopinginsanity.com/PCLOS2.pdf>
Mouse pointers that do not do as they say:
<http://tmp.gallopinginsanity.com/PCLOS.mov>
Even Ubuntu has its share of quirks - though it is clearly done much better:
<http://tmp.gallopinginsanity.com/ubuntu-menu.pdf>
It is not like such examples are hard to find - or are not obvious. How
could anyone who has used Linux and either Windows or OS X not have such
things be apparent to them - especially someone who considers themselves
knowledgeable about computers?
>> Shuttleworth is working to correct that.
>
> What? Perception?
No.
> UI consistency isn't fixed by a packager like Canonical.
Correct.
> That's just marketing hype...
>
> ...kind of like Apple.
You are incorrect... read his blog. My predictions are, at least to some
extent, coming true. When they do Linux "advocates" will tout what I have
been advocating as an advantage of Linux over OS X and Windows... but until
then people in COLA will claim I am wrong. Heck, how many people in COLA
have put down FireFox for the private browsing feature I noted it was, at
the time, lacking... now suddenly it is no longer a bad thing.
--
When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how
to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not
beautiful, I know it is wrong. -- R. Buckminster Fuller
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