Is Linux Mint ugly?

[old_noob]

For the most part, I do not find Mint to be ugly. I mostly run xfce now and have used cinnamon extensively in the past. Once booted up, it looks like the competent, no-nonsense distro that it is. The wallpapers offered are wonderful though we live in a beautiful place and choose to put up our own local wallpaper. However...

The LM logo we see when booting and shutting down is definitely butt-ugly. It looks like a young child's drawing of a LM branded hair dryer. I heartily encourage a forum contest to come up with a better looking logo (grand prize: free LM downloads for life ).

Yes, it's a matter of taste and some will love the present logo... not a big deal, I just look away while it boots.

[Rtep]

About "not being "customer" : People who donate are whatever they are! They expect to be heard. What is wrong to expect errors to be fixed? How many times I heard about some customization are gone forever ? How many time people complaining about tiny side sliders? People are choosing LM because all differences that Windows do, no mater who is complaining about what? Name those people whatever you want, the rule is always there even when you say they are not customers! "Don't shy away from criticism, because it's healthy and it makes you better at what you do."
Amen.

[Reaccion Raul]

For the most part, I do not find Mint to be ugly. I mostly run xfce now and have used cinnamon extensively in the past. Once booted up, it looks like the competent, no-nonsense distro that it is. The wallpapers offered are wonderful though we live in a beautiful place and choose to put up our own local wallpaper. However...

The LM logo we see when booting and shutting down is definitely butt-ugly. It looks like a young child's drawing of a LM branded hair dryer. I heartily encourage a forum contest to come up with a better looking logo (grand prize: free LM downloads for life ).

Yes, it's a matter of taste and some will love the present logo... not a big deal, I just look away while it boots.

I agree on this. To me the LM typography itself is fine, it's the shield. The logo is quite ugly and keeping with this green everywhere too, even Ubuntu Mate green looks much better.

[Arch_Enemy]

I just noticed my favourite scheme in Mint is no longer working correctly...



The indent bar at the top is no longer indented. It still works with BlackMATE, but stopped working in this one...

[majed17]

i like black high contrast themes.. and i want the same while browsing in firefox, unlike windows 10 for example where you choose a high contrast theme and firefox automatically picks it up, that for some reason does not happen in linux mint and therefore i have to switch "Override the colors specified by the page with your selections above" to always in firefox but the problem is that i am typing now with black letters on a black background.. am i the only one to prefer high contrast themes and be suffering from this?

[smurphos]

Are you talking about theming of web content in Firefox? Mint's Firefox has a tweak set in about config to force web content to be rendered using the default GTK theme Adwaita. This was added because Linux Firefox's support for dark GTK themes is broken (poorly visible text in entries) and has been for over a decade, but Mozilla seem disinclined to fix it.

You can dis-apply this tweak in Firefox by visiting about:config. Search for the key widget.content.gtk-theme-override and clear the value to see if your preferred theme does render OK.

[ZakGordon]

If this another of those 'campaigns' to push Windows 8 'Flat Design' everywhere, then i'm calling it now. Just so we are all clear on what this might be

ALL those WIndows 8 (Mac OS inspired?) GUI designers need to understand why Windows 8 was the most hated GUI changes in Windows history, which had a very direct effect on the numbers of people that moved to Windows 8 then left (or added third-party options to restore the GUI to a functional state) and even MS themselves that have been 'winding it back' as they did with the Windows 8.1 reskin and now WIndows 10 which is closer again to what Windows 7 looked like. Go have a look at the Steam Stats for Windows 8 usage (now and historically). Even the hated Vista made a better impression if you just go by the user numbers!

So what you need to do is go back to design school and unlearn what you learned, because all the world does not want to be Windows 8 Flat, although i will give you credit for being bull-headed and persistent and congratulations on ruining much of the modern internet and tools in your crusade so far. The trouble is i see your game and nothing will ever convince me this cursed Windows 8 GUI is nice to look at, nice to use, or functional and certainly not a GUI improvement over what went before. 'Form over Function' is not a step forward in this arena (and more so when the 'Form' is so pig ugly!).

Edit: And for the record 'Ugly' is the last thing i ever found Mint (either CInnamon or XFCE) to be. If the 'green' stuff is not your bag you can change it in the themes and icon settings etc.

Mint has always been very user friendly, especially for those that come from a Microsoft OS using background (before Windows 8 ruined GUI and peoples expectations of GUI).

[majed17]

i tried fiddling with the widget setting except i didn't notice any change..i removed the always in "Override the colors specified by the page with your selections above" in colors, and switched to "only with high contrast themes". for example the startpage website looks black

while the linux forum page looks sleazy green

and thanks for caring

[majed17]

solved by installing dark reader addon !

[Portreve]

I'm a fan of skeuomorphism, not flat UI design. Everybody's attempts at flat UI — Apple, Google, Microsoft, the libre community — have looked like s**t. The first thing I do, cosmetically, on a fresh LM install is switch to the Mint X Aqua icon set, and change the cursor from White to Black.

[Moem]

Gentlefolks, do we really need to do this discussion from 2018 all over again?

[Portreve]

Gentlefolks, do we really need to do this discussion from 2018 all over again?

Yes, darn it, until it is finally settled and us skeuos have won!

Now shut up, drink your Victory Gin, and have a double plusgood bellyfeel about UI design, Moem.

[Grateful4Linux]

solved by installing dark reader addon !

I use the Dark Reader extension set to Sepia... which is very easy on my eyes!

And for me, "ugly" is one of the last things that would come to mind in describing how Linux Mint looks. I've customized my settings, and I think it's beautiful.

Also, I'm not sure why having an "LM" in a circle is better than the Linux Mint leaf, which to me is more recognizable while the circle just seems extremely ordinary. Then again, I'm more of a "don't fix what isn't broken" kind of person.

[majed17]

you can't imagine how mint is great for the brain, that great that i grow it indoors

[ZakGordon]

you can't imagine how mint is great for the brain, that great that i grow it indoors

Yes this too. besides which we all need to think 'more green' in general and Mint is leading that mental shift in it's forward (prophetic even) looking design approach

[trytip]

you can't imagine how mint is great for the brain, that great that i grow it indoors

for a while there arch linux was a great and stable distro when i actually drove it as my daily driver and things were good. it was awesome, everything edgy and fresh off the source code floor you couldn't ask for more.
it's when they decided to abolish old hardware that things went to the dark side. many users got a black screen of death one update in late 2018 and life has not been the same since. i managed to keep aech and maintai it with no issues for about 2 years
WHY is it i can't keep the same linux desktop and settings for more than 2 years

[Flemur]

"Ugly is such a smelly word."

in Ubuntu 18.04 you can't customize much.

Au contraire! There are many different Ubuntu versions to install; I installed from a "minimal" UB18.04 iso, and add whatever I want and don't add what I don't want.

[ZakGordon]

WHY is it i can't keep the same linux desktop and settings for more than 2 years

I know this was most likely rhetorical, but i've been using Mint for how long now, like 4-5 years? Ok i had to switch from Cinnamon to XFCE to control the over-heating issues on this particular laptop, but what i liked (and NEEDED) about Linux Mint was that is felt and worked like a fully baked commercial OS out of the tin.

The transition from Windows as my main driver just would not have possible without Linux Mint, i'm 100% sure of that (having dabbled in Ubuntu ages ago), and in that i see no reason to change from Linux Mint. Like Windows it 'just works' most of the time and it does not throw away decades of GUI influence from (pre Windows 8 ) Windows (as the worlds most used OS) just because it has an inferiority complex wrapped up as a superiority complex.

Clément and the devs hit gold in understanding the strengths of Linux AND Windows, and as far as this longtime Windows user is concerned combined that to create the perfect OS alternative to Windows (as near as we can get at any rate). Windows 10 will be pushing a lot more people to look at Linux Mint.

Now if only they would take Paysafe voucher payments i would be able to regularly chuck donations their way (as it is the only method i think 'safe' to use on the internet).

Oh and the logo is fine (did we really have a criticism of it?!), it's gained decent recognition and that matters in branding. We don't need to enter this modern OCD circle of change for changes sake. We just need to get over ourselves a bit and understand an OS is a tool and the more efficiently functional (vs how it looks based on the latest fad) it is, the better.

[Grateful4Linux]

...what i liked (and NEEDED) about Linux Mint was that is felt and worked like a fully baked commercial OS out of the tin.

The transition from Windows as my main driver just would not have possible without Linux Mint, i'm 100% sure of that (having dabbled in Ubuntu ages ago), and in that i see no reason to change from Linux Mint. Like Windows it 'just works' most of the time and it does not throw away decades of GUI influence from (pre Windows 8 ) Windows (as the worlds most used OS) just because it has an inferiority complex wrapped up as a superiority complex.

Clément and the devs hit gold in understanding the strengths of Linux AND Windows, and as far as this longtime Windows user is concerned combined that to create the perfect OS alternative to Windows (as near as we can get at any rate). Windows 10 will be pushing a lot more people to look at Linux Mint.

Now if only they would take Paysafe voucher payments i would be able to regularly chuck donations their way (as it is the only method i think 'safe' to use on the internet).

Oh and the logo is fine (did we really have a criticism of it?!), it's gained decent recognition and that matters in branding. We don't need to enter this modern OCD circle of change for changes sake. We just need to get over ourselves a bit and understand an OS is a tool and the more efficiently functional (vs how it looks based on the latest fad) it is, the better.

I totally agree with your post Zak! Microsoft's changes in its GUI post-Windows 7 were incredibly frustrating. Like many people, I refused to downgrade to 8 or 10 and couldn't understand why the OS with the majority of the market share kept trying to change its GUI to be more like Mac's. If I wanted to use a Mac-like OS, I would have bought a frickin' Mac instead of a PC... and it seems a lot of Windows 7 feel the same way. I'm glad so many, like me, are finding a superior replacement for Windows in Linux Mint!

I like having a practical, familiar system and interface that I can count on, and I appreciate not having to spend hours retraining myself to do simple things every couple of years because somebody thinks they need to "modernize" something. I love that Linux Mint is so stable and customizable, but I also appreciate how intuitive it is to use and that it is familiar for people who have used computers for decades. There are a lot of reasons why Windows 7 was and still is loved by so many people, and I think LM is wise to offer a similar (and even better IMO) desktop experience.

I also agree about the logo, as I've mentioned before... brand recognition is important, and I think the original has that. It seems silly to throw that away for a current trend/fad.

[Portreve]

If I wanted to use a Mac-like OS, I would have bought a frickin' Mac instead of a PC... and it seems a lot of Windows 7 feel the same way. I'm glad so many, like me, are finding a superior replacement for Windows in Linux Mint!

I hate to be the one to break it to ya, pal, but if you're running Cinnamon (or, to a lesser extent MATÉ), you are running a very Classic Mac OS / Mac OS X-like GUI. It's certainly more Mac-like than it is Windows-like.