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Comment by alanfranzoni | Hacker News Reader

I must say that the whole desktop looks like something from the 90s. If you find it fine for your needs, that's great. But I don't think it's a general solution. Linux is so half-baked with respect to desktop, very often it's getting as problematic as a Windows system, especially on laptops.

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Yes, on Linux you can make your desktop look like something from the 90s, if you so choose. The big DEs (Gnome Shell, KDE Plasma) don't generally look like this (though Plasma is configurable enough, you probably could configure it so to do), but rather explore different paradigms.

Amusingly, the macOS UI, on the other hand, is almost literally from the 90s (it dates from 2000, I think). And the Windows 10 UI isn't meaningfully different from the Win95 interface.

So it's really mainly on Linux that you actually have the option of modern UIs.

You do realize that the desktop shown there is a very, very non-standard setup and the author specifically chose it because it fits his needs better than mac os.

> Linux is so half-baked with respect to desktop

Considering the linked article does not show anything about a usual linux desktop, what are you basing your opinion on?

> I must say that the whole desktop looks like something from the 90s

I think any comments about the looks of a Linux desktop must be sure to talk about what Desktop Environment are you saying that about. I find KDE and Gnome to actually have a much more modern look and feel then anything from Apple and Microsoft.

Personally I have found Windows 10 to be much much better for me as a Linux user and I can run OpenSUSE on the command line a great help. Still I think Linux has been and will continue to be the platform that pushes Desktop Environments and features. There are other issues but this is not one of the problems.

> I think any comments about the looks of a Linux desktop must be sure to talk about what Desktop Environment are you saying that about.

"The whole desktop" -> I was talking EXPLICITLY about the exact setup of the desktop of the article, not about a "generic" Linux desktop. I don't know where you got that impression.

If you think that, try using the budgie ubuntu distro with the arc-dark theme. Way ahead of both macos and windows.

That sounds fantastic, I can Google but do you have a link? I love Ubuntu for my servers!

It's an official distro.

https://ubuntubudgie.org/

Go to "Budgie Themes" and you can set the theme from there. Things like the Pop theme from System76 are included in the list, as well as Arc etc. I personally like to install arc-dark manually from https://launchpad.net/~noobslab/+archive/ubuntu/themes

There are also some really good cursors in that PPA

You're not really planning on installing this version on linux on your servers because of how the GUI looks right?

I use Mint and Centos as much as my OSX system. This is a configured environment for development, not much else but it works fantastically.

My latest Linux build sits in my music studio and I record and edit audio for production.

I think your conclusion is invalid and specious, but it's an opinion.

If you still want to try a more polished Linux dist, try Elementary OS: https://elementary.io/

That was a choice he made based on personal preference. It isn’t typical to use text-based window managers in Linux. FTA:

But I have switched from Gnome to i3. Over the years I’ve migrated from graphical to text-based applications for most things

How is it half baked?

Some examples from my latest (Ubuntu 18.04) linux experience: - Does hidpi work? For ALL applications, and flawlessly? - Is the desktop responsive, or does it feel laggy? - File manager:Can I customize my favourites, including removing the builtin ones? - Can you use a lot of good desktop applications? Like MS Word, Adobe Photoshop, and similar? Or Google Drive, Pixelmator, Dash, Flux, tools in general that may have a small price but make your work considerably faster? - Does bluetooth audio work flawlessly, like, you can use a bt audio device, then stop, then start again? - does the system include a braindead, just-works backup-and-restore system?

Sure: if you know Linux well enough, AND YOU SPEND ENOUGH TIME ON YOUR SYSTEM, you can fix most of the above issues (I could not fix the Gnome DE latency with hidpi, btw). But I don't want to waste my time fixing my desktop; I want to pay, and my desktop should just work.

Then: if you like the Linux desktop, feel free to use it.

I agree with your statement that a desktop should Just Work, and the Linux desktop experience is not perfect, but you seem to have had a harder experience than most would.

I don't expect you to get back on Linux or anything, but paying for known supported hardware (e.g. Dell XPS 13) goes a long way to have a 'no-tinkering-needed' experience (pretty much like OSX run better on its own hardware).

For the record, HiDPI works flawlessly and responsively with a Dell Precision 5510, including when using projectors with different resolutions. Never had an issue with my Bluetooth headphones, and the system does include a braindead, just-works backup-and-restore system : deja-dup, which works with Google Drive out of the box after inputing your credentials.

Applications that don't have a Linux version can be a pain, but most have perfectly good alternative (Google Docs, Flux, Zeal for Dash).

Some of them don't really, or require a big change (typically, Photoshop/Gimp), and those can indeed require one to stay on a specific OS

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