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A new wave of Linux applications

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Re: A new wave of Linux applications

#281

Post by anthk »

eric4smith wrote: post #205

Until there is as “simple” to use an app like Preview on the Mac, most of these new generation apps are garbage. I’ve just switched to Ubuntu on a workstation I have lying around. And man, is it hard to use for just normal everyday use. Yes, it has the basics covered, but like many others my job has a lot of simple image manipulation related stuff. Convert pdf to png. Assemble multiple images into a pdf. Quickly shar…

From ImageMagick:

     convert bla.pdf bla.png

     convert *.png output.pdf

Re: A new wave of Linux applications

#282

Post by thawaya3113 »

haroldflowers wrote: post #247

I've been a long time linux desktop user, recently switched over to macOS after getting fed up from not being able to do many basic "productivity" related tasks, without having to open a terminal, search for a package on google, fiddle with some config, do a rain dance, etc... Skimming through just the blog post and some of the comments on this thread gives me a bit of a flashback thinking of all of the headaches I'v…

I’m curious which distro you were using. I was forced to switch to Linux as a desktop server because of a HW failure that prevented Windows from booting.

And I have found it a breeze to use it as my primary desktop (it’s not a laptop though).

Re: A new wave of Linux applications

#283

Post by batrachos »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #257
haroldflowers wrote: post #247

I've been a long time linux desktop user, recently switched over to macOS after getting fed up from not being able to do many basic "productivity" related tasks, without having to open a terminal, search for a package on google, fiddle with some config, do a rain dance, etc... Skimming through just the blog post and some of the comments on this thread gives me a bit of a flashback thinking of all of the headaches I'v…

The Linux world has two competing ideals: "So easy my grandparents can use it" and "Learning the terminal will make you a better person". Anyone who tries to make things too simple (PCLinuxOS) is derided and criticized by Popular Linux YouTube Channel, Reddit, etc. Anyone who tries to make things too technical (Arch) is ignored by Popular Linux YouTube Channel, Reddit, etc. So only those distros that flounder somewhe…

> Ideally, the Linux desktop world would just split in half, so that there can be a clean separation between these two ideals.

Isn't that basically what's happening already?

ChromeOS and Android Linuces on the one side, GNU/Linux (sorry Stallman haters) on the other...

Re: A new wave of Linux applications

#284

Post by quanticle »

leveraction wrote: post #202
quanticle wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree with the whole premise of having a single app for both desktop and mobile. Even if you give developers the tools to make a good app for desktop and mobile, they won't. They'll make the mobile app first, ensure that it runs on desktop, and then dust off their hands and call it a day. To quote the Purism blogpost cited elsewhere in this thread: Web designers now have toolboxes to design web pages, which they…

> Except, web designers don't adjust web pages for mobile or web. They adjust pages for mobile, and then what you end up in a desktop web browser is acres of white space and buttons that are the size of your head. I had to laugh at this. I am writing a PWA now and this is definitely an issue in "desktop mode". The thing is though, with giant monitors (I develop on a pair of 4k curved ultra-wides) there is so much roo…

Yeah, I agree that it's challenging to fill up a 3840x2160 or an ultrawide 3440x1440 monitor. But I see apps (Gmail being a prime example) that don't even fill up 1920x1080 window.

Re: A new wave of Linux applications

#285

Post by FpUser »

rland wrote: post #64
floren wrote: post #36

These applications look really pretty and all, but for my selfish purposes, I just really want real goddamn scrollbars back. I use a mouse that doesn't have a scroll wheel, but for the life of me I've been unable to figure out how to make applications like Firefox just give me a real scroll bar on the side of the window that's thick enough to grab without fiddly pixel-hunting.

I found a solution for Firfox on Ubuntu MATE: 1. go to about:config 2. find widget.non-native-theme.scrollbar.size.override 3. Change to some pixel value (I have mine set at 26). voila! I do not understand why the default is so thin. Really bucks the trend of every UI element being touch-screen large nowadays!

It seems that "modern" UI designers want a look and do not give a flying fuck about ergonomics (on desktop at least)

Re: A new wave of Linux applications

#286

Post by grey_earthling »

selfhoster11 wrote: post #203
goodpoint wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "don't theme my app" movement is really harmful to the application ecosystem. Especially true for users with partial visual impairments, but also for other users that want to have a consistent style on their desktops or phones.

Not to mention, some people just want to theme their desktop. To make the computer feel like it's theirs.

> Please read the letter all the way to the end. This is aimed at distributions breaking apps by default, not tinkerers playing with their own setup.

https://stopthemingmy.app/

Re: A new wave of Linux applications

#287

Post by nirvdrum »

gattr wrote: post #194
nirvdrum wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GTK and Rust works really well on Linux, which I suppose is the pertinent part given the focus of the article. I've yet to work out how to get GTK and Rust to work on macOS or Windows, which makes cross-platform UI difficult.

FWIW, my smallish project [1] (Rust + GTK3) builds and works on Windows out of the box. I use the MSYS2 build environment. [1] https://github.com/GreatAttractor/vidoxide

Thanks. I'll take a look. I've tried Relm 3, Relm 4, and gtk-rs, but they all use Linux only in their CI. I just can't work out what to install and what env vars I need. I didn't the official GTK docs all that helpful on the topic. I'm keen to see how to package the whole thing up, too. Ideally, I could just put the necessary libraries in a directory with the executable.

Re: A new wave of Linux applications

#288

Post by strken »

phendrenad2 wrote: post #257
haroldflowers wrote: post #247

I've been a long time linux desktop user, recently switched over to macOS after getting fed up from not being able to do many basic "productivity" related tasks, without having to open a terminal, search for a package on google, fiddle with some config, do a rain dance, etc... Skimming through just the blog post and some of the comments on this thread gives me a bit of a flashback thinking of all of the headaches I'v…

The Linux world has two competing ideals: "So easy my grandparents can use it" and "Learning the terminal will make you a better person". Anyone who tries to make things too simple (PCLinuxOS) is derided and criticized by Popular Linux YouTube Channel, Reddit, etc. Anyone who tries to make things too technical (Arch) is ignored by Popular Linux YouTube Channel, Reddit, etc. So only those distros that flounder somewhe…

I don't think they're competing ideals at all. What is needed is a configurable system with easy defaults, just like setting nano as the default editor but allowing me to change it to vim.

Re: A new wave of Linux applications

#289

Post by Teknoman117 »

ryeguy_24 wrote: post #274
Waterluvian wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a younger engineer I loved Ubuntu because I got to feel like a hacker that was making my custom working environment. But these days I’m just irritated by how much it takes to do _primitive_ things. I spent 30 mins today just getting my Outlook calendar to display in Ubuntu. I had to use Stack Overflow to learn of a package I had to install. No error messages. The calendar just remained blank until I instal…

I have very limited experience with Linux but every time I try to install something, I find that I lack some dependency and then wind up trying to build from source. What could fix these types of issues? Why does most software just install effortlessly on Mac OS? Is there something that Apple does that could be mimicked in Linux? I may be naive, but seems like a legit question.

There is a simple thing they do that we could mimick (and some have started). macOS and Windows ditched (or never used) the concept of widely using dynamic libraries and dependencies.

Apple and Microsoft build SDKs that you compile against, and for the most part those are the only dynamic libraries that you use. Between point releases the ABI is compatible so you can do thing like security updates without recompiling applications. Everything else is bundled inside or distributed along side the application and is the responsibility of the app developer.

There are a few attempts at doing this on Linux - Flatpack, Snap, and AppImage.

Re: A new wave of Linux applications

#290

Post by prox »

bstar77 wrote: post #269
haroldflowers wrote: post #247

I've been a long time linux desktop user, recently switched over to macOS after getting fed up from not being able to do many basic "productivity" related tasks, without having to open a terminal, search for a package on google, fiddle with some config, do a rain dance, etc... Skimming through just the blog post and some of the comments on this thread gives me a bit of a flashback thinking of all of the headaches I'v…

I've had the exact opposite experience. When I started using Linux the UI was a crutch, but as I learned, the command-line became much more compelling because it was substantially more powerful- it's infinitely easier to add features via flags and params than it is to integrate in a GUI. I pretty much live in the command-line now and I've never been more productive. All of my calendar/doc/notes needs are in the cloud…

They are different paradigms. The command is a power tool, suited for expert users (vs intermediates and beginners)

The stance is also different of the command line. As someone who also does creative work, the command line is simply not a tool I can use. “Paint Logo” is not a command :)

Making Linux a diverse tool for different stances and operations would be a great help for adoption.

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