Why is Gnome so ugly?

headache · Apprentice Joined: 26 May 2004 Posts: 226

Before you all bring out the flame throwers and start a barbeque, let me explain:

Both Gnome and Xfce4 is based on the GTK+ toolkit, so they use the same basis for what is drawn on the screen. the problem is that Xfce4 is doing a great job of creating a visually pleasing desktop along with some very nifty apps, while Gnome, which is older and more "developed" than Xfce4 is plain ugly and extremly difficult to make look decent whereas Xfce4 looks decent out of the box.

I think Gnome is in dire need of better and more graphical artists and not just kids with Gimp trying to make even more horrible themes.

Your take?

Oh, and I'm not a newbie to any DE environment or to linux for that matter. Have used Linux as my main OS for 10 years.
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Lews_Therin · l33t Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 657 Location: Banned

Have a look through some of the Gnome desktops on the screenshot threads, I'm sure you'll find something you like.

MaxDamage · Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 6:40 pm Post subject: Re: Why is Gnome so ugly?

fernandotcl · Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 6:52 pm Post subject:

Have you run Fedora? It's an outstanding desktop. Bluecurve is great.

MaxDamage · Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 7:17 pm Post subject:

If you like the redhat artwork you have it in portage:

ralph · Advocate Joined: 02 Mar 2003 Posts: 2001 Location: Hamburg

zez · Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 7:22 pm Post subject:

After kde-look.org started, GNOME launched art.gnome.org. The only problem was that the site was taken down for a while after the GNOME servers were compromised, but now it seems as if it'll be "back soon...," which should be a good thing.

As far as GNOME being ugly, I'm assuming that by ugly you mean the overall appearance including fonts, icons, and themes?

Roguelazer · Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 7:30 pm Post subject:

I like gnome's look. The "simple" theme is nice, as is a semi-put together by me (I took other peoples' work and combined them) theme (http://www.roguelazer.com/Screenshots/GNOME/Nautilus.jpg for a picture), although most people would disagree with me.
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Fire-Reiher · n00b Joined: 20 Dec 2002 Posts: 28

well...

http://ads-clan.org/Screenshot-1.png

headache · Apprentice Joined: 26 May 2004 Posts: 226

No, I find most of the screenshots in the various screenshot threads severly ugly and appauling.

I have looked at the arts.gnome.org and emergeed the artwork and it's far from art!

It's amazing that 2 DE's that use the same toolkit can be so different in looks.

Sorry guys, to me gnome is incredibly ugly even though I like the GTK toolkit.
_________________
"I'd rather have a President who does it to a woman than one who does it to his country" -- Shirley Maclaine
Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.

placeholder · Advocate Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 2500

Look at the GTK theme in my screenshot. It is called Smooth Streak and to me at least it looks awesome as hell. I thought I had an old screenshot from my GNOME using days, but I suppose not, so seeing it in the ROX filer windows and such will have to do.

headache · Apprentice Joined: 26 May 2004 Posts: 226

Pwnz3r, Not bad, actually one of the better i have seen.
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"I'd rather have a President who does it to a woman than one who does it to his country" -- Shirley Maclaine
Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others.

sn4ip3r · Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 8:56 pm Post subject:

I prefer the Digital-Cream theme from here. But I don't use gnome, I prefer ion3 :wink:

placeholder · Advocate Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 2500

Yeah, and it matches well with my Fluxbox setup as far as the color of the menu goes and stuff. Personally, I don't see where QT or anything else beats the Smooth Streak GTK theme, but that's just me.

richk449 · Guru Joined: 24 Oct 2003 Posts: 345

I think I am the only person left in the world who likes the simplicity and cleanliness of GNOME. Both KDE and Xfce4 seem to gaudy to me.

I am a little worried that the next version of GNOME is going be in black and white, since color is too complicated for users. As long as they let me turn it back on though, I will be happy.

rndmtask · n00b Joined: 10 Jan 2004 Posts: 66 Location: Earth

Pwnz3r it looks like your theme is using the xfce4 theme engine. Personally I hate the look of xfce and I love the simple look of gnome. It can get a little plain over time but for the most part its great. Just different taste I guess.

pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20067

Sotol · Apprentice Joined: 09 Apr 2004 Posts: 192

placeholder · Advocate Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 2500

Vadatajs · Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 2:27 pm Post subject:

regeya · Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 2:37 pm Post subject:

Personally, I don't care how damned pretty my desktop is. I care more about how usable my desktop is. Hey, I just switched back to using Bluecurve so obviously I'm not too worried about how pretty the darn thing is. :lol:

fusibou · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 25 Mar 2003 Posts: 109

My desktop is... a black screen with auto-hiding panels. I spend my time looking at apps and I like Gnome's simple, elegant look that isn't "in my face".

Maybe if you want to sell an operating system on its own (cough-- Windows, Mac-- cough) you have to sell its window dressing as some kind of exciting feature worth $100's but with Open Source, you get it all for free anyway.

This reminds me of car reviews where they describe the look and swish and feel of the car but don't get around to telling you the electrical system dies after the first rain or the tires explode or it rolls over etc.

superjaded · l33t Joined: 05 Jul 2002 Posts: 802

ed0n · Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 6:54 pm Post subject:

yes...

Gnome can be beautiful.

IvanHoe · l33t Joined: 05 Oct 2002 Posts: 658