Is Linux Mint ugly?

[Len99]

But I agree with him about changing themes, you should be able to switch the entire theme at once too, not just piece by piece.

I would love to see packaged themes that change everything in one installation, it would it make a noobs linux experience easier a bit like the way that the panel tweak tool in Ubuntu works that changes the destop menu all in one hit.....

[lsemmens]

I would love to see packaged themes that change everything in one installation, it would it make a noobs linux experience easier a bit like the way that the panel tweak tool in Ubuntu works that changes the destop menu all in one hit.....

I agree that a packaged theme would make life easier for noobies, but, don't take away the ability to customise individual parts though.

[Mage of Maple]

This stupid obsession with flatness may be trendy, but it sure looks godawful.

I completely agree. +1

And +1 for the avatar. It's been a while since I've seen Castrovalva ...

[Arch_Enemy]

Get a real life people. Mint is a tool

L

I noticed that some people care a lot about how a system looks, Desktop Environments and wallpapers are very important to them.

I heard people complaining about the Mint's website too, that looks outdated or ugly. Well, it could use a design revamp indeed, this layout is around for many years.

That would be me. One of the things I liked the most was the ease with which one could create a pleasant desktop environment.
With GTk3 that is going away....

[Arch_Enemy]

This stupid obsession with flatness may be trendy, but it sure looks godawful.

I completely agree. +1

And +1 for the avatar. It's been a while since I've seen Castrovalva ...

Seriously. If I wanted to run Window 10, I would run Windows 10.

I think we spent like, an entire decade, getting AWAY from flatness!

[CaptainKirksChair]

This stupid obsession with flatness may be trendy, but it sure looks godawful.

I completely agree. +1
And +1 for the avatar. It's been a while since I've seen Castrovalva ...

Seriously. If I wanted to run Window 10, I would run Windows 10.
I think we spent like, an entire decade, getting AWAY from flatness!

I agree with everything said above. To me, the Windows 10 icon set looks like Microsoft stole it from a 1985 Amiga. It looks awful. Portreve also said that the Mac OS X 10.1 -> 10.6 was the high water mark of visual execution. I agree completely. This flat look and feel really is ugly. Not just Mint -- on ANY computer or phone. Even macOS 10.11 and 10.12 have flattened out the graphics. Now it looks less visually appealing. I guess Microsoft, Apple, and Google engaged a focus group and they all picked the ugliest desktop graphics.

I understand it probably takes a bit less computing power to draw the flat graphics as opposed to the 3D graphics. But most computers now have 4-8GB of RAM as a default. They also have powerful GPUs along with very powerful CPUs. Why make your computer desktop look awful when you can make it look quite beautiful by spending a bit more time coding to get good 3D graphics? This is why I use Mac4Lin and Cairo-Dock with the Alu theme on Mint Cinnamon. It looks GREAT instead of looking like 2D refrigerator art your kid drew 20 years ago in 1st grade.

[BG405]

I understand it probably takes a bit less computing power to draw the flat graphics as opposed to the 3D graphics. But most computers now have 4-8GB of RAM as a default. They also have powerful GPUs along with very powerful CPUs. Why make your computer desktop look awful when you can make it look quite beautiful by spending a bit more time coding to get good 3D graphics?

+1.

As far as resources go, we had more visually appealing icons decades ago. I don't imagine there are many monochrome displays in use on modern PC systems so why lose the colours too? Makes items much harder to distinguish between. Plus many of these "flat" icons have designs whose function is not evident from its appearance; one has to guess, or learn them.

For instance, what idiot thought that 3 lines in a row (or 3 dots) would be a suitable replacement for the spanner or cog icon, whose function is quite obvious (adjust something)? 3 lines in a row .. hmmmm .. let us think what that could mean to someone who's used to proper icons & labels. Compose mail? Make notes? That's what the damn thing LOOKS like it should do.

Not as bad as one OS I tested for a mate though (Chrome?); choices on startup are a circle, a square and a triangle, with NO labels.

[Pepi]

It's ugly if you configure it to be

[Reaccion Raul]

Linux Mint default look is kind of ugly, it's true.

I think the only problem with Mint initial impression is the wallpaper, panel size and maybe logo. LM (branding) wallpapers aren't cool, they are very ugly by today standards. Maybe 13 years ago could be ok with the 3d stuff and so on, but today it almost look like an old screensaver, nowadays standards are minimal. Also the selected green isn't the most atractive color, it's a boring color. Maybe this is good for real work as it doesn't make you loose focus on your real tasks, but not at first look to get a cool modern system. Even the logo i think is too complicated by nowadays standards, the typography of the "Lm" itself looks good, but the "shield" it's outdated. The good thing on the other hand it's that's very recognizable.

The original panel itself is also in an old fashion way, not small to get a the biggest possible screen size, not big enough for a modern task bar a la Unity / Windows like. It looks Windows 95 like. If that's the purpose then it's ok.

I don't really care about all this as i can change it to my liking, and i trust LM stability (never had an issue) but it's true that it isn't anything ground-breaking, that's where all this complain come from. It works but it's boring. People care a lot about coolness (maybe not a 45 years old guy, but yes for a 20-early 30s person), even more than functionality, and that's something Apple understood a long time ago. And also i think that's why Manjaro is more and more popular each day. Even nerdy style people at the end, wants the same (but not on the popular one of course). A young newbie can come to Mint at first because it's kind of scared of Linux (and the branding in this way it's quite good), but in some time it will get bored and move on to a cooler OS. And for example Manjaro has it all for this people i guess, Arch (the R E A L pure Linux), looking cool and easy to install / use even to atract some newbies.

[CaptainKirksChair]

As far as resources go, we had more visually appealing icons decades ago. I don't imagine there are many monochrome displays in use on modern PC systems so why lose the colours too? Makes items much harder to distinguish between.

+1

Have you seen the new interface for Microsoft Office? Of course you haven't because there really isn't an interface to speak of. It is damn near monochrome all the way. The choices for the "color" scheme are gray, darker gray, and white. Those aren't colors, they are shades of gray. So is that what computing has become? A take on an S&M movie? Maybe that's true seeing as how much pain Microsoft inflicts on the users every time they upgrade. I want my computing experience to be somewhat friendly, not masochistic.

I like the 3D look because well, the world is 3D. A little round red button that looks like it has some convexity to it is preferable to a flat, unappealing, darker gray X as a way to close the active window. At least Mint gives me the option to change. I like that.

[ZakGordon]

I must admit the very last thing i thought about Mint was if it was ugly or not. I've been using 17.1 (Cinnamon) for a few years now and it is WAY better looking than my experiences in Windows (Since 8 ). Nothing has changed that much in Mint 18 and 19 that i can see to change that impression.

Really since the GUI changes in Windows 8 THAT is now easily the ugliest GUI (not improved much in Windows 10) i've had to use since the Windows 3.0 days.

Then again i also think the Mint forums are incredibly serviceable and functional (unlike all the forums using stuff like Discourse/Discord etc).

I think the Windows 8 GUI change had WIDE ramifications around software GUI design and while even MS agree it was terrible (they changed things back pretty quick with 8.1 and 10 to be more like Windows 7) somehow that Windows 8 GUI design philosophy filtered out into wider GUI design and new EVERYTHING tries to look like it. Just awful.

So i really hope Mint sticks to it's design ethos rather than adopt the 'me too' Windows 8 conventions, and that goes for the website also.

Still like i said this terrible GUI design is spreading like a plague, so i expect it to arrive here too

[lsemmens]

In some ways, the Windows 8 debacle was the right thing at the wrong time. M$ was trying to emulate the touch screen epidemic that has taken the mobile world by storm. In their case, given the number of convertible tablets out there now, they were a few years too soon. It was certainly one thing (not the only thing BTW) that turned many (myself included) off W8. FWIW I'll happily live without it on any of my computers and laptops for many more years, though I can also see some advantages.

[BG405]

M$ was trying to emulate the touch screen epidemic that has taken the mobile world by storm.

Touch screens are an abomination IMHO. A screen is meant to provide a clear view of the content, not with a messy layer of finger-crud blocking it. Hard enough keeping a regular screen clean these days as people insist in putting their greasy fingerprints all over it. I often have eyesight issues but don't need to use my finger to guide them so what gives?

Need to put a label on, stating "This is NOT a touch screen. Please, do NOT plant your greasy fingers on the screen, because I'm sick of having to clean the mess off it." .. worst is, if you scratch it, the screen is ruined.

A keyboard is usually much easier and cheaper to replace. A screen is not supposed to be an input device. It's led to the hideous oversized space-wasting sites we have today, because there's no way a finger can pinpoint the same exact pixel a mouse can, so websites are now being designed round that limitation, with negative consequences for us all.

[smurphos]

Touch screens are an abomination IMHO.

Touch screen psychology is interesting, particularly how easily very young children (i.e. pre-talking and certainly pre-writing or pre-typing age) can get to grips with navigating a touch-screen smart-phone or tablet, often more successfully than their parents.

[Johann_Popper]

Mint 19 is gorgeous. Mint-Y should've been default for years, and Mint-Y absolutely should be the default Cinnamon theme in 19 -- why not? It's clean and modern. Perfect. Cinnamon animations are lovely. It's a great great UX. Only complaint: Cinnamenu spice is better than default Mint Menu!

Trouble is, GNOME Shell has come along very nicely since 2011 and is now also a genuine pleasure to use. So is Budgie. Plasma is fantastic, MATE is great.... The future turned out fine after all.

[ud6]

... if I would change anything I would pick the Mint-Y-Dark as the default Desktop Theme..

+1 I always swap to that theme as more restful on eyes and keeps focus on bits I'm working on (document or spreadsheet). Only problem is that WPS has problems with that theme (spreadsheet goes black).

I guess ugly is relative.. for me I don't know anything more beautiful. It seems more sophisticated than plasticky windows (as long as you choose a nice wallpaper from the selection already within mint). (I use mate)

[JosephM]

... if I would change anything I would pick the Mint-Y-Dark as the default Desktop Theme..

+1 I always swap to that theme as more restful on eyes and keeps focus on bits I'm working on (document or spreadsheet). Only problem is that WPS has problems with that theme (spreadsheet goes black).

I guess ugly is relative.. for me I don't know anything more beautiful. It seems more sophisticated than plasticky windows (as long as you choose a nice wallpaper from the selection already within mint). (I use mate)

No way. You even give the reason in your own post. Too many apps, and some major ones, have issues with a full dark theme. It's one thing to give the option to users who are ok dealing with those issues. It's another to supply something as the default that you know doesn't work properly.

[ud6]

... if I would change anything I would pick the Mint-Y-Dark as the default Desktop Theme..

No way. You even give the reason in your own post. Too many apps, and some major ones, have issues with a full dark theme. It's one thing to give the option to users who are ok dealing with those issues. It's another to supply something as the default that you know doesn't work properly.

Good point, but I'd hope that mint being such a popular distro that WPS linux would do something about it.. how many software developers in windows expect windows to change to suit their software?

[Valsodar]

I'm reading several comments(videos/blogs) about Linux Mint ugliness in the last days, comments like:
- "nice distro but ugly"
- "I wish it looked better" and so on...

The default silver theme is indeed ugly but smurhos' theme Cinnamox-Rhino quickly fixes that problem.

[Alpha_sh]

whether it is "ugly" depends on the user's choice of theme amd DE, i have a custom theme that is meant to be black/grey with cinnamon (removed all the green) and is a modified version of Mint Y combined with a modified version of CBlack, which in my opinion, looks perfect. i am not a fan of the stock themes however, because the green doesnt look very good at all. in my opinion, mint Y is much better than mint X, and mint Y has some good looking icons. gnome-shell if your willing to install it makes your linux mint look nice and clean for some good looks too