My understanding is that in this particular case, it's built in a very modular way. E.g. it uses an embedded version of potrace to do autotracing. It's hard to make a good and consistent UI when you're unifying so many pieces.
Why do you think that is? What makes them popular?
Figma, canva etc are all really popular. Google docs is popular. They are all easy to use. For basic tasks we really dont need a huge expanse of menus and options all laid out like an aircraft cockpit. I would argue for a normal person that is far worse than some empty screen, which maybe hides a bit, but puts the more common or important tools visually first.
Maybe it could just be a toggle in a menu somewhere, "pro mode". These FOSS tools could learn what was good about modern design and try to iterate on the good take aways.
I'm guessing there are other programs free through expensive that meet your basic-tasks use case. Be mindful, these are volunteers.
I don't think that means what you think it means.
imean i really like inkscape but it seems obvious to me that being able to organize a focused, coherent, and powerful interface is a rare and subtle skill, and most people with it would not also happen to find themselves successfully herding the cats required for effective implementation in an OSS project
Sure it can be improved, but dumbed-down and flat is not in the top 100 things I'd ask for.
I have a concrete questions:
Why can’t a lot of FOSS projects try and distill what is good about modern UI or ideas instead of looking like a program from 10 years ago.
What is the obstruction in the community getting people to work on this? Hostile power user attitudes?
Simultaneously if free software advocates want it to be adopted why don’t they cater a bit to the good things about modern design?
Saltily remarking “you get what you pay for”, is hostile. Fine I’ll use the modern web and tools, and they can lament on HN wondering where everyone went.
Not to mention "modern design" is often worse in a number of ways.
Inkscape is an incredible achievement with the amount of resources it has had available. If you can do better, do so. I'm willing to bet a comparable program is 1000x more work than you anticipate.
This poster gets it:
And the improvements in this release reflect a lot of that work.
This is usually accompanied by someone eagerly pointing out "Don't you feel salty!"
I've seen that use rising among cryptobros lately, specifically to deflect critics as secretly jealous that they missed out on something. I'll allow it as long as they don't co-opt jawn as well.
Maybe people are just different, but Inkscape's (G)UI has been serving me well enough ever since.