Is Linux Mint ugly?

[ssspace]

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...

Linux Mint 19 and the new Mint-Y theme was a improvement in my opinion, I think it looks nice, if I would change anything I would pick the Mint-Y-Dark as the default Desktop Theme, the rest is fine(the default is Linux Mint, the grey one).

The question is, why so many people think it's ugly? Is it the default that is bad or people are just lazy and don't want to spend time customizing?

What could be improved?

[ssspace]

I customized mine to look like GNOME, I'm happy with the results:

WM Theme: Mint-Y-Dark (Mint-Y-Dark)
GTK Theme: Mint-Y-Dark [GTK2/3]
Icon Theme: Mint-Y
Font: Noto Sans 10
Extensions: Transparent panels
Panels: 2 panels, top, left
Applets: Cinnamenu, Icing Task Manager

[trytip]

i wish linux mint would change the color of that "low contrast green" which is the default color for mate. i feel nauseous when i stare at it too long, but that's only my OCD alive and kicking.

[Night Wing]

I'm one of those who dislikes the new default Mint-Y. As soon as I saw what the Mint-Y looked like on the live DVD, I immediately went to Appearance and was hoping the old Mint-X was still available in Xfce. It was much to my relief.

And that was the first thing I changed when I finally got to my Desktop after installing Xfce. Since I run Xfce as my DE, I prefer for Style "xfce-redmondxp", for icons "Mint-X-Blue", for Window Manager Style "Daloa".

I don't know if the Linux Mint Forums site would accept an attachment from my Pictures folder, but if does I'll show an attachment with my preferred browser Pale Moon) since it will show Daloa. If it does, I'll post a 1366 x 768 attachment. If this is prohibited, then I won't be able to post the attachment.

I no longer use online picture hosting sites.

On a side note, my wife doesn't like the new default Mint-Y either. Don't shoot the messenger, but she describes the Mint-Y look as somewhere between "Bland and Blah". She is not a fan of the "flat look of icons, the modern look, the minimalistic look" or whatever people call this look. As she walked out of the room, she told me a "male" must have created the Mint-Y look. And if he had, then he probably drives a black colored vehicle.

[lexon]

Get a real life people. Mint is a tool

L

[trytip]

@lex maybe you're not old enough to have vision problems , we'll talk later when you reach age 45+

[Sir Charles]

Get a real life people. Mint is a tool

With Mint, I HAVE a real life.

[gm10]

Not a fan of the default theme, either. But nothing forces you to keep the default theme so sticking to that and then complaining or even choosing your distro based on that seems quite silly. Besides, it's just the OS. My time is usually spent looking at the contents of windows, not at their borders...

[ssspace]

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.

[Portreve]

The question is, why so many people think it's ugly? Is it the default that is bad or people are just lazy and don't want to spend time customizing?

Hey ssspace!

Y'know, it's funny you bring this up. Today, the article Should You Declare Windependence? I Switched to Linux to Find Out. showed up in my news feed. So, I decided to read it, and Avram Pilch's descriptions of LM19 Cinnamon made me wonder if we lived on the same planet. I really hate articles like this. It's not because I don't want there to be articles critical of distros, but because this is not a particularly factually-based one. It's all (or nearly all) personal opinion and even admitted-to lack of competence masquerading as a legitimate, facts-based review.

Ok, so, apart from talking about that article, since you asked and since that's the point of this thread, here's my feelings on the cosmetic aspects of LM.

In the first place, I'm not and have never been a fan of the "flat appearance" concept for user interfaces. I think Mac OS X 10.1 -> 10.6 (mind you, visual elements changed, so I'm not saying they were all identical) and iOS 1.x -> 6.x represented for me a high water mark of visual execution. Likewise, I think AndroidOS prior to 5 (when Material Design first reared its ugly head) did a much better job.

Apple, Alphabet, and Microsoft have almost certainly had a significant impact on GNU+Linux desktop environments for better and for worse. This stupid obsession with flatness may be trendy, but it sure looks godawful. As for icons, that really hinges upon two things: what icons have been supplied by software project developers, and what replacement overrides have been thrust upon us by theme makers and distro maintainers. I use the Mint X icon set because, at least from what I've seen available including the Paper Project, it's the nicest and least fugly option available.

[ssspace]

Looks like the author of the article had a bad experience with Mint. But is fine, long feedbacks always help projects and devs, it's nice he tested it, more people more feedback more improvements.

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.

[gm10]

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.

That's a limitation of the Cinnamon themes app. I can switch entire themes in MATE. I often found it weird that most of the Cinnamon tools feels so much more clunky despite Cinnamon being the main DE.

[trytip]

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.

from what i see using arch linux which pretty much has all software up to date, many things are changing. seems every man , correction every desktop is out for themselves only. linux is starting to divide into small groups taking away user space and making it into developer playground. old configs are not respected and user needs conform to new developer rules
i am extremely embarrassed that a user needs now spend more time, resources and energy at keeping what was good 2 years ago is not good any longer in today's linux society.
mind you that linux mint is WAY behind the times using kernel 4.15 but is only slave to ubuntu and can only follow what ubuntu developers release.
i will stick with mint/mate/17.3 as long as it will be possible but i do keep an up to date an arch linux partition.

anyone upgrading to mint 19 should do so knowing that the new experience will differ. some have good luck and others have a broken down system acting slow and unresponsive

[gm10]

mind you that linux mint is WAY behind the times using kernel 4.15 but is only slave to ubuntu and can only follow what ubuntu developers release.

Way behind the times? What are you talking about?! The first revision of the 4.15 kernel was released only 5 months ago. That's about as recent as it gets. We are not debian sid here.

[ssspace]

By the way, I just saw that they plan (viewtopic.php?f=61&t=272147) to remove some icon sets(humanity-icon-theme and ubuntu-mono):

https://github.com/linuxmint/Roadmap:

artwork:

MyPaint and Pinta have the same icon
Firefox bookmarks don’t use the folder color picked in the Cinnamon theme setting.
remove humanity-icon-theme and ubuntu-mono
mintwelcome icon
grey-on-grey icons (many in cinnamon-settings)
mint-y-icons: yellow and teal folders missing.
cinnamon: The progress indicator in the panel should be the same color as the chosen theme. Not just green.
cinnamon themes hardcode the font

And for LM 19.1 they are considering:

artwork

add dark variant support to Mint-Y (needs fixes in Caja)
mint-y lack of borders without compositing
gtk color variations
cursor theme?
sound theme?
slightly taller/darker panel?
generic menu icon?
bump resolution of branded backgrounds

I think a nice idea would be add more icon sets, more themes of everything, like add the top 5 or 10 most used of the download lists(borders, icons, controls, cursor, desktop) to make it easier for the end-user.

[catweazel]

mind you that linux mint is WAY behind the times using kernel 4.15...

Nonsense.

[ssspace]

They removed 9 window borders in LM 19: viewtopic.php?f=90&t=272018, and plan to remove 2 ubuntu icon sets.

So... is Mint Cinnamon becoming more like elementary OS that has a very rigid/restricted vision of how the desktop looks like and doesn't let you customize?

[catweazel]

They removed 9 window borders in LM 19: viewtopic.php?f=90&t=272018, and plan to remove 2 ubuntu icon sets.

So... is Mint Cinnamon becoming more like elementary OS that has a very rigid/restricted vision of how the desktop looks like and doesn't let you customize?

No, and if you read the posts at the link you provided, you would find out why it is the way it is. From a Mint dev, no less.

[ssspace]

They removed 9 window borders in LM 19: viewtopic.php?f=90&t=272018, and plan to remove 2 ubuntu icon sets.

So... is Mint Cinnamon becoming more like elementary OS that has a very rigid/restricted vision of how the desktop looks like and doesn't let you customize?

No, and if you read the posts at the link you provided, you would find out why it is the way it is. From a Mint dev, no less.

But you know what? These(remove the borders and icons) are good decisions, in my opinion the removed window borders were ugly and outdated, like the the ubuntu icons.

I'm fine if one day Linux Mint goes that path/model of "one single design experience" like elementary OS or Ubuntu are doing, in Ubuntu 18.04 you can't customize much.

It's like providing less options gives a sense of relief that I don't to need to change anything and just use the system, that I will not need to spend much time changing things and making decisions. I'm actually fine with both visions: more customization or less customization, I don't care that much about visual things, I care more about the stability of a system, which LM has been doing great so far.

[catweazel]

in Ubuntu 18.04 you can't customize much.

That's because U18.04 now uses the Gnome DE, which is notorious for forcing mad "innovation by taking an axe to it" on its users. Cinnamon and MATE are eminently customisable and I don't see that changing any time soon.