>Most issues appears when designers (like GNOME ones) want to impose a brand or vision.
Gnome is by far my favorite DE on linux because its the only one I feel that actually cares about the best out of box experience. I can install any linux distro and pick gnome and it all just works. And it just works really well. While everything else seems to take a significant amount of tweaking to create a nice experience. So I think Gnome is the perfect example of why stripping back configuration works. I like the choice available to pick my DE and OS, but after that I want it to just work.
Another issue I have noticed is the more settings a piece of software has, the less stable and consistent it is. You get issues which only occur when particular settings are set because the devs just haven't used that setting in so long they didn't see the issue. I had some where just setting up volume change keys required configuring keyboard shortcuts to fire bash commands to adjust volume..
I prefer to use software where the designers and developers are bold and put forward their vision on what the right way is. If they are right, I use the software, if they are wrong, I find an alternative that is right. I think LibreOffice is the biggest example of devs held hostage by the community unable to do anything. They have like 4 different UIs available which you can pick from in the settings. Their modern redesign isn't even the default setting. So I prefer something like Google Docs where they have one UI and feel empowered to change it to fit the best possible design.
>I prefer to use software where the designers and developers are bold and put forward their vision on what the right way is
This is stupid, why do games let you configure the controls? Is it because the developers are not bold to impose the right way and force the people into it? Are the people changing the controls "using it wrong"?
I assume you mean themes, there is no right way there, there are people that need larger contrast, larger fonts, different colors so give them the option. So if you are forced by accessibility reasons to offer diffent sizes and colors(even iPhones offer this) then IMO you are a bad developer/designer to hardcode your theme and your are an ashole if you do extra work to prevent teeming by the community.
If you mean missing functionality as a feature , most of the time is because other reasons, like GNOME missing file picker thumbnails and their fake defense of it like "you are using it wrong, just DND the files because this is the right way"
In fact, no proprietary OS offers different colors other than some accent colors.
Which Gnome developers have already said they will bring in future releases.
Heck, they aren’t even against theming. They are taking a wait and see approach to see if they can include more theme customizations without causing remarkably more work for app developers.
In fact, they are absolutely fine with developers who want to provide additional themes doing so. To the point that Gnome developers have themselves added additional theming options to default apps that will be released in Gnome42.
I remember back with XP everyone was installing additional themes and gadgets to completely customise the look of their system. And it worked fine. Why can't it work now?
A computer is part of the room. It's part of the furniture. It's part of the looks. I should be able to decorate the digital desktop, as much as I am able to decorate the surrounding desk and room.
> I remember back with XP everyone was installing additional themes and gadgets to completely customise the look of their system.
That sounds a bit weird: Up to and including Windows 7, you could pretty completely customise the look of your system just using the built-in control panel.
I don't mean you chose colors and corner radius because you want to make your buttons look like candy. I mean features like text sizes and high contrast , go check your iPhone Accessibility section (but only if too many settings won't affect negatively, there are probably many options and labels to read).
My point is that hard-coding fonts,sizes and colors in your app is against accessibility, some fonts are harder to read then others for some people, small sizes is obvious the issue, some people need higher contrast then gray on white to read comfortably. If you are a competent dev or designer you need to understand that your app needs to work if the user wants a different font and different colors, Apple has guidelines. What would be nice is to think about the app as a tool that lets the user do a job and not like a work of art that a desgner needs to add it to a CV,
> In fact, no proprietary OS offers different colors other than some accent colors.
Yeah, and that sucks. Why the fuck don't they? Until fairly recently, "the" proprietary OS -- Windows -- did offer different colours for everything, not just some accent colours. Taking that away (with the introduction of Windows 8) was a humongous dick move.
What makes you think that (previously most, and now all) proprietary OS vendors perpetrating this humongous dick move is somehow an argument in its favour?
> Gnome is by far my favorite DE on linux because its the only one I feel that actually cares about the best out of box experience.
And GNOME is by far my least DE for reasons including the way they only care about out of the box experience, which is to say they firmly believe in no customization, and their defaults disagree with me.
Gnome is by far my favorite DE on linux because its the only one I feel that actually cares about the best out of box experience. I can install any linux distro and pick gnome and it all just works. And it just works really well. While everything else seems to take a significant amount of tweaking to create a nice experience. So I think Gnome is the perfect example of why stripping back configuration works. I like the choice available to pick my DE and OS, but after that I want it to just work.
Another issue I have noticed is the more settings a piece of software has, the less stable and consistent it is. You get issues which only occur when particular settings are set because the devs just haven't used that setting in so long they didn't see the issue. I had some where just setting up volume change keys required configuring keyboard shortcuts to fire bash commands to adjust volume..
I prefer to use software where the designers and developers are bold and put forward their vision on what the right way is. If they are right, I use the software, if they are wrong, I find an alternative that is right. I think LibreOffice is the biggest example of devs held hostage by the community unable to do anything. They have like 4 different UIs available which you can pick from in the settings. Their modern redesign isn't even the default setting. So I prefer something like Google Docs where they have one UI and feel empowered to change it to fit the best possible design.