Is Linux Mint ugly?

[Portreve]

The box clearly showed "5400 watts" as its nominal output. I was 3 meters away and I could see that. However, the two were trying to work out if the unit was "fifty-four hundred watts" or "five thousand four hundred watts".

The easiest way to figure it out is to convert it first to HP.

So... I'm assuming you're referring to something other than Hewlett-Packard.

[trytip]

In the case of LM I agree with you that the main focus should not be aesthetics but ...

personally if my screen doesn't look aesthetically pleasing, why would i spend time on it staring at videos or documents?
anything is stable as long as you don't update it. the good linux should have a complement of both aesthetics and stability. and i don't mind a few edgy software packages like timeshift or some video driver settings.

i want to be able to turn on my computer, refresh a few updates without killing the boot and then go on the internets and have some fun.

[RollyShed]

The box clearly showed "5400 watts"

The easiest way to figure it out is to convert it first to HP.

So... I'm assuming you're referring to something other than Hewlett-Packard.

No it is 18,425.5 Btu/hour. Can't anyone get anything right.....

[Dark Owl]

Fine... but explain why we should have our chosen theme and wallpaper altered without so much as a "by your leave"? Wouldn't it be more sensible to leave things as they are, and give the user the option to choose a different theme if they wish?

If you upgrade that's exactly what happens - your personal settings are left untouched, if you do afresh install whilst preserving your home folder that is also what happens

That's hopeful, but not the impression I got from some of the posts.

[SpongebobFan1994]

I imagine its a personal preference/mixed opinion kind of situation.

I've been using Mint for years now, and I've never changed the themes up until now because I've always cared more about it's functionality, while not caring one way or the other about how it looks (except I've never liked the default wallpaper they went with for 19). However, after deciding to change the themes, I can now see why people think the flat designs look bland, and I'm glad I made that decision. As far as having to change them one at a time, I personally think that's a good thing because it gives you more customization options. What I'd like to see are much larger screenshots under the add/remove tab, instead of having to bring up a webpage just to get a better look at it. For one thing, it comes off as an unnecessary and a little tedious step. For another, that border around the list is a complete waste of space which could be put to better use. While the icons in the task bar do pop somewhat more when you remove the default flatness of them, what I'd like to see is replacing the task bar with 3D icons that glow underneath when in use.

[MtnDewManiac]

There is a certain point regarding colors and branding though, does this ring a bell?:
bsod.png
pukey blue

I used to work in the automotive industry, specifically vehicle detailing, which - for those who don't know - goes beyond simple cleaning... In regards to vehicle exteriors, it sometimes went all the way to wet-sanding a poor paint finish before the usual compounding and glazing with a high speed buffer and then applying a couple coats of wax with a random orbit waxing device. We had a LARGE cabinet full of touch-up paint for chips and such, but also had to order some nearly every day. So I was working on a car one day when the secretary opened the door to the "dirty" part of the shop and yelled to ask me what the paint code was for that vehicle. Older lady, maybe the same age as I am now (lol) - but she was computer-savvy enough to burst into laughter when I replied, "Tell them it's BSOD blue." I then went on to get the paint code, of course - but, yes, that was once a very popular color in the computer world. Not popular as in well-liked, but popular as in "often seen by many."

On-topic content:

I dislike most shades of green, and always have. <SHRUGS> The last time I allowed a company's marketing department to do my thinking for me was when I was approximately six years old and talked my parents into buying me a box of cereal that I had seen advertised on television. As we have always been (monetarily) poor, I had to eat all of the cereal. That sure taught me, lol. While I do occasionally wear a green shirt, that is very, very occasionally because I have been repeatedly told by the opposite sex that the color is complimentary to my hair/eye/skin color - but far more often, because I have to go elsewhere to do my laundry, and it's simply what is clean. In other words, "fashion" is something that I pay very little attention to, and give little attention to others' opinions of same. Form/function is all. If, for whatever reason, you feel that it isn't... try removing it utterly from your life and see how far you get on fashion alone.

I do find it interesting that the complainer's "marketing color chart" whatzit showed green to signify(?) "peaceful, growth, and health." You know something? That works for me! Something that works even more (for me) is that the green color scheme is Clem's personal choice. I have to respect that. After all, he respects mine - and yours, and yours, and yours... and even the complainer's - enough to provide many options for customizing what is HIS linux distro, and even includes a great many choices for those options so that we do not have to immediately begin searching the Internet for themes/etc. after we install it. Something else I respect: There are a limited number of Mint developers, they (presumably) volunteer their time - and I am very grateful that they spend their limited amount of time on fixing actual problems / figuring out how to improve the distro, rather than spend a portion of that time worrying about whether the thing would be (somehow?) perceived as being better if they changed it to default to a different color scheme.

Speaking of which - volunteer labor and choice... This is NOT a commercial product . Therefore, that whole concept of "marketability" can safely go straight to where it should have gone way back when early hominids were learning to chip pieces off of stones in order to make useful tools, that was considered to be the height of technology... and someone who didn't feel like working for a living thought, "Hey, I bet if I could convince someone that their stones would become a lot more popular if they dabbed a bit of ocher on them, they would not only make some for me, they might even go so far as to do all that labor-intensive hunting/butchering/etc. and bring me all the ready-to-eat mastodon meat I want." Which is to say, the nearest refuse heap. My guess is that, while Clem would be happy if everyone chose to use his distro, he's not too bent out of shape that some folks choose to use Microsoft Windows, Apple... whatever Apple's OS is called, BSD, other linux distros, et cetera. It's a choice thing, yes? One of the wonderful things about choosing to NOT sell your product is that you don't have to worry about this kind of thing. I sincerely hope that those who choose to use his distro - and have the ability to do so - all make at least one donation. For that matter, I hope those in charge of the purse strings at Microsoft and Apple make sizable ones, too. After all, competition is a healthy thing. And when I paid attention to the "Windows world," I would occasionally notice that Microsoft's OS incorporated a feature that was common on linux distros. Years after it became common in the linux world, lol, bur still. I would donate, and on at least an annual basis, if it wasn't generally a struggle for me to manage to keep myself fed (and, this year, with work being nonexistent and restaurants placing far less still-edible food into their dumpsters at closing time, that struggle is worse for me than it has ever been before ). But the only thing I can do is to make others aware of Mint, help those I encounter in the real world to install it, and hope that some of them will end up finding it useful enough to decide to make some sort of donation.

What I find even more interesting than the fact that complainer sort of figuratively shot himself (herself? IDK...) in the foot by posting that color chart as if it was evidence that green was a "bad" color... is that the person seems to have demanded that their account be deleted. Trying to be as objective as possible about that, the action strongly infers that complainer feels completely unable to stop logging in to the forum unless/until the person is prevented from doing so by a forum staff member. Now my takeaway from that little jewel of knowledge, subjectively speaking, of course, is that I do not want that person's opinions influencing the developers of my distro-of-choice in any way, shape, or form. I mean... little kids have more self-control than that. And, while I do have a soft spot for children - and think they're great and all - I wouldn't choose to have them make decisions for the developers. I mean no offense to little kids, or to complainer. It's simply the way I feel about it. Others' opinions may differ, of course.

For any in the audience whose attention spans wander after reading a line or two of text, to summarize the above: I don't care all that much for green, either. But, rather than let my autistic side take over and spend way too much time complaining about it (which, apparently, is an option here ), I'm choosing to, instead, be thankful that the people who make the decisions on such things have decided to not only give me the option of changing the color scheme - but to also make it easy for me to do so. As the years go by, my cognitive function declines more and more, and I feel more and more "lost" when it comes to "computer stuff." Even so, I figured out how to change the look of my distro installation almost immediately; the only reason it took me some little time to actually do so is that there were so many colors/icons/etc. to choose from (and that is NOT a complaint!). They've even given me the option to alter the color scheme of this forum, lol - for my own account, it's the blue color scheme. Others will go with one of the other ones. Choice. . . .

Regards,
MDM

[kelevra]

I don't necessarily think Mint is ugly. Are any of windows default looks any better? I have always personalised my workspace on all my operating systems and that is my prerogative. I know many people that don't give a s*&^ and have never changed a thing. Like many people have alreadey said. 'it's a machine'. I myself like making my things exactly that, my things. Cars, bikes, mx bikes, computers, to name a few. Change how it looks if it bothers you, you might learn a little about about said device.

[MtnDewManiac]

I have seen videos of some pretty... involved (in the visual sense) linux installations. Things like rain (or maybe it was snow?) on the desktop, the mouse cursor creating "trails of fire," setups having multiple desktop areas (I forget what that is called) that turn into the outer surfaces of a cube and which can be "spun" to reveal the one the user wishes to bring up, et cetera.

I'll change minor things from their default settings, like the color scheme and trying to get some of the text large enough for a human being to read it without the use of a magnifying glass . But, basically, I do not turn on my computer with the intention of staring at the desktop, lol. To me, the OS, DE, WM, et cetera is just the stuff that supports whatever application I am going to be running - such as a web browser, text editor, and so on. I have not even bothered to enable system sounds in several years. I suppose that, again "to me," it's somewhat like the color of a vehicle. Sure, it's nice to have an automobile (truck, van, etc.) that has been painted with one's favorite color. But I have owned a car that had not one but TWO different colors of junkyard-sourced body parts before. Plus the original color that was on the rest of the thing. It went most of the time that I wanted it to, stopped every time I needed it to... and that was about it, really. Which was enough. The fact that it was three different colors didn't really bother me at all, and I didn't think about doing anything about it, even after I began working at a place where I could have driven it in after hours, took it down to bare metal with a DA, and done the prep/primer/paint/paint/paint along with the (eventual, after the paint cured/hardened) wet-sanding and other finish work. I did have the shiniest three-colored car in the area, lol, but that was mostly because, when I began working there, I had never done any wet-sanding, used a high speed buffer, etc., and the boss wasn't going to just turn me loose on customers' vehicles.

Some people don't care much what their desktop looks like, as long as it serves its intended purpose. Others do care - and will proceed to customize it as they see fit. Some very, very few apparently expect it to arrive looking exactly the way they want it to look. In my opinion, that expectation is, in general, highly unrealistic - but if they want it to actually happen, they should plan on paying (a lot) for it. As mentioned many times, it's easy to customize, and there are many ways to do so. For that matter... I don't care for Cinnamon, could probably use MATE without much in the way of adaption/compromise, cannot figure out why KDE exists, and think Xfce is great. Others will probably disagree with some or even all of that statement. All the more power to them, lol.

Regards,
MDM

[CaptainKirksChair]

To me, it's called a Graphical User Interface for a reason. It's supposed to be graphical. Not some ugly, flat, colorless, boring, icon theme. If you like the flat icons, then stop calling it a GUI, because it's not.

[cliffcoggin]

Very eloquently stated MDM. I could not agree more. I would write more on the subject but I simply can not get enthusiastic enough about such a minor matter to put fingers to keyboard. After all, it's only a tool.

[BG405]

setups having multiple desktop areas (I forget what that is called) that turn into the outer surfaces of a cube and which can be "spun" to reveal the one the user wishes to bring up

That'll be the "Desktop Cube" which is available (and I have enabled) in KDE Plasma 5. May also have been present in Plasma 4 too and possibly also available in, or for, Xfce.

I take pleasure from having some of these fancy effects, like Wobbly Windows etc.. As for Mint, I do quite like the default themes. Especially the dark ones.

[MtnDewManiac]

setups having multiple desktop areas (I forget what that is called) that turn into the outer surfaces of a cube and which can be "spun" to reveal the one the user wishes to bring up

That'll be the "Desktop Cube" which is available (and I have enabled) in KDE Plasma 5. May also have been present in Plasma 4 too and possibly also available in, or for, Xfce.

I take pleasure from having some of these fancy effects, like Wobbly Windows etc.. As for Mint, I do quite like the default themes. Especially the dark ones.

There you go. Your setup is probably as different from mine as a modern chrome and glass living room with tailored scents misting from a fancy electric gizmo is from a wood and leather library/den smelling of an early 20th century tobacconist's shop. But both are fine - for those who enjoy them.

Very eloquently stated MDM.

Thank you. I did not intend to put so much thought into such a simple thing. But I will go one more, which might illustrate our points nicely (maybe).

I could not agree more. I would write more on the subject but I simply can not get enthusiastic enough about such a minor matter to put fingers to keyboard. After all, it's only a tool.

In my opinion - which is likely the only kind of answer a thread like this could generate - the most pleasing [i[default[/i] color scheme I have ever personally seen was on the first computer I ever owned. That was the Commodore VIC-20, and I still remember how, when I flipped the power switch, it immediately and proudly stated...

"...3,583 BYTES FREE"

I'll take whatever Mint offers and like it, lol.

Regards,
MDM

[MurphCID]

My old rant back again: FONTS! FONTS! FONTS! Linux uses ugly fonts, and ugly icons. I love linux, but I wish we could make our UI/FONTS/Icons prettier.

[BG405]

the most pleasing [i[default[/i] color scheme I have ever personally seen was on the first computer I ever owned. That was the Commodore VIC-20, and I still remember how, when I flipped the power switch, it immediately and proudly stated...

"...3,583 BYTES FREE"

Oh yes! I do like those colours. I have one here which I acquired recently & had forgotten how good it looked. My old VIC=20 was sold in the early 1980s to help pay for the Commodore 64. (Actually, the machine in fromt of me is the German version .. the VC=20, due to the way "VIC" is pronounced with a German accent .. not that they bothered to change the bottom label .. )

[dm999]

Ugly is a harsh word, however... I do struggle with the fonts and icons in Cinnamon, I find them a bit fuzzy even after making various tweaks. Also I'm not a fan of the dark background on the left hand panel of Nemo, maybe this can be changed but it's a minor point in the scheme of not knackering my eyes.

I seem to get better results with Xfce so I'm currently triple booting with Mint Xfce and MX Linux and will fiddle around with them both and see which is easier on my eye's before moving from Cinnamon.

[jp14]

i'm confused ...many is ranting about fonts , whats wrong with 'em?
same with icons , whats wrong with them?
maybe i'm missing something.

[dm999]

i'm confused ...many is ranting about fonts , whats wrong with 'em?
same with icons , whats wrong with them?
maybe i'm missing something.

Generally in Cinnamon I'm fiddling about with resolution, font sizes and scaling to get something that's usable for me. After that I'm into Firefox messing around with zoom and layout.css.devPixelsPerPx trying to get something usable. I've been doing this on and off for the six months that I've been using Cinnamon without a wholly satisfactory solution.

After trying out many distro's as live USB I've settled on installing and investigating Xfce further as it seems to be easier to configure to produce a coherent overall visual solution that suits me - being able to adjust the DPI is a boon. Also I prefer the feel and experience of Xfce to Cinnnamon anyway.

Xfce's Thunar with Moka icons is a hell of a lot clearer and easier on my eyes than Nemo with it's dark sidebar and I find the Mint icon themes a bit flat, dull and fuzzy. I've also changed my system fonts to Roboto as they are sharper to my eyes than Ubuntu.

I've got average eyesight for my age (55), no real problems as such, got spex for reading and close work. That's my experience anyway.

[Dark Owl]

being able to adjust the DPI is a boon.

That is a factor I can get behind. Preparing to invest in a 4K monitor + suitable graphics card, my research indicated desktop scaling could be a problem. The issue is not the number of pixels on the screen overall, but the relative DPI at working distance.

Yes, it's good to have more real-estate (in pixel count) to display more of a document at one time or have several open and visible at one time, but that advantage is lost if the features are too small to see and everything has to be scaled up. This applies to office work - gamers won't be so bothered, they just get UHD video.

The only setting in Cinnamon which works for me is "hi-DPI". Otherwise everything on-screen is too small. One program I tried to run did not respect the hi-DPI setting, and continued to display its GUI with the default pixel count. This might seem to defeat the purpose of a 4K monitor (it's only 24", to fit on my desk, therefore is 185dpi) - but what I get is crisp text at readable size instead of fuzzy text. If you have room, I would recommend 28" or 32" as a minimum size to make best use of 4K.

However, if XFCE offers more flexibility in scaling icons, system text, and application GUIs, that sounds like a better way for me to go.

[dm999]

However, if XFCE offers more flexibility in scaling icons, system text, and application GUIs, that sounds like a better way for me to go.

It's definitely worth a look, I recommend playing around with a live USB to see if it suits your needs.

[GS3]

Is Linux Mint ugly?

What? Is this the setup for a yo mamma joke?