Godawful look and feel

[rev667]

I am not quite a newb, but I have been away from linux for a while.

After my hard drive died, I re-installed windows, and because I now had space, I decided to install Mint. The install was painless and I was looking at the desktop within minutes.

After a little bit of faffing about I realized that my personal linux bugbear is alive and well... the gui looks like it was designed for a VGA screen, huge fonts, buttons, icons, window decoration etc.

Why do almost all linux distros look like they were designed by a myopic Fisher-Price employee?

I know I can change most of it to my tastes but in these days of HD screens, would it be too much trouble to make the gui a little more erm grown-up?



Rev

[Lingula]

Your beef is with the desktop environment in its default config in one distro, not with Linux. You also didn't mention the desktop environment or the resolution of your monitor. It makes me wonder if you are just trolling.

[Neil Edmond]

I was going to make a comment, but thought better of it. Lingula probably has it right...

... makes me wonder if you are just trolling.

[rev667]

Sorry, not trolling.

Just that with almost every linux install (yes default) they all have the same rather chunky clunky look and feel. As for only one distro...

Started with SuSE 6.4, then mandrake, redhat, more suse, gentoo (very good) a whole bunch of others, including BeOS! even LFS at one point, oh and ubuntu in various guises.

Apart from gentoo and lfs they all have that same childlike quality.

My monitor is a typical 1680x1050 generic monitor, nothing special.

Apart from the very small gripe, I am loving mint so far, everything seems to just work with minimum of fuss.

Once I get draftsight installed, it may be time to ditch windows completely.

Rev.

[InkKnife]

I have found the exact opposite. Every distro I have ever tried had the default font size set too small for me.

[jo12]

I have found the exact opposite. Every distro I have ever tried had the default font size set too small for me.

yes me too.. i always reset my font size..everything else looks terrific.

[macrohard]

I think one thing always has to be remembered, when considering desktop environment design. When doing so, one sometimes has to consider who might be the weakest level of user who might use such a system.

In one way, this really is the reason why Microsoft was so successful selling desktop/laptop operating systems in the beginning. It is one reason why Windows 8 is a pain, especially with desktop users. (I use Windows 8 at work all the time, I downloaded a plugin that reverts it to Windows 7 desktop style).

The nice thing about Linux is that one can go and customize the desktop to their liking, from the base install. I do think it's the better approach, even though some more advanced users of operating systems may not necessarily care for such an approach....

[jo12]

I am a newbie but if I recall some of the distros have an option as to one of 2 video settings. ie x.org or ?? Is it possible some setting was made that has not changed back?
and of course your monitor may have that resolution but is your screen actually set at that for your display?

the rescue mode can have a lower res..
it sounds like the display has somehow not properly picked up or been set.

do you have the system profile installed? search on forum for thread with info.

[skywolfblue]

I know I can change most of it to my tastes but in these days of HD screens, would it be too much trouble to make the gui a little more erm grown-up?

I don't think that KDE is that way.
Or, at least it's no more Fisher-Price then Windows 7/OS X by default, and is super-configureable. KDE is one of the most "grown up" GUI's I've ever known in terms of configuration.

I do agree that there are some elements of Ubuntu that are larger then I'd like (Dash icons for example).

From what I've seen of cinnamon screenshots it looks more or less the same sizing as KDE.

[Previous1]

the gui looks like it was designed for a VGA screen, huge fonts, buttons, icons, window decoration etc.

Why do almost all linux distros look like they were designed by a myopic Fisher-Price employee?

I know I can change most of it to my tastes but in these days of HD screens, would it be too much trouble to make the gui a little more erm grown-up?

Consider yourself lucky you're not that "myopic Fisher-Price employee". Consider yourself lucky you can change it to fit your every desire.

... kids these days.