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Cosmic: A New Desktop Environment

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Re: Cosmic: A New Desktop Environment

#111

Post by bobrobpr »

Nevermark wrote: post #71

[Posted different version under a now flagged comment] I would love a completely customizable desktop system. Be able to select different window arrangers, docks, etc., for each workspace. -- Thinking bigger, something useful would be persistent and named "worksets" of workspaces, that can be closed and reopened. One workset at a time, or multiple. It would help to be able to view/edit/access the same docs and tools…

I like this a lot. But Im not such a specific programmer to even fathom how to do this. I do have the skills to learn anything. I just wonder if this would be possible with Erlang.

Re: Cosmic: A New Desktop Environment

#112

Post by tgv »

msephton wrote: post #96

I see nothing really "different" or "better" here, in terms of visuals or ease of use. To that end... I don't see the point in imitating a desktop experience that is pretty stagnant and moving in the wrong direction (macOS; I'm a user myself) when there are the decades that preceded Y2K that could be mined for much more usable an interesting desktop experiences. There's BeOS, Amiga Workbench, Atari ST various windowi…

It looks nice, and it looks familiar. That's important. You don't sway people with a UI that's too far from their experiences. And people like eye candy. If you ever have to build a demo, first make sure it looks good. The first impression counts, unfortunately.

Re: Cosmic: A New Desktop Environment

#113

Post by msephton »

ComplexSystems wrote: post #106
msephton wrote: post #96

I see nothing really "different" or "better" here, in terms of visuals or ease of use. To that end... I don't see the point in imitating a desktop experience that is pretty stagnant and moving in the wrong direction (macOS; I'm a user myself) when there are the decades that preceded Y2K that could be mined for much more usable an interesting desktop experiences. There's BeOS, Amiga Workbench, Atari ST various windowi…

You still use System 7?!

Yes! Here we go:

- Mostly on an iPad Pro, no less: https://blog.gingerbeardman.com/2021/04/17/turning-an-ipad-p...

- Here's my latest artwork done in System 7: https://blog.gingerbeardman.com/2024/07/14/shibuya-pixel-art...

Believe it or not there are apps that run under System 7 that have no modern equivalents, or their modern counterparts are objectively worse. The vector apps I use on System 7 (Canvas, artWORKS, FreeHand, Expression) run rings round Figma in many important ways.

Re: Cosmic: A New Desktop Environment

#116

Post by asynchronous »

candiddevmike wrote: post #108
msephton wrote: post #96

I see nothing really "different" or "better" here, in terms of visuals or ease of use. To that end... I don't see the point in imitating a desktop experience that is pretty stagnant and moving in the wrong direction (macOS; I'm a user myself) when there are the decades that preceded Y2K that could be mined for much more usable an interesting desktop experiences. There's BeOS, Amiga Workbench, Atari ST various windowi…

I'm really astounded that macOS window management is so bad. For a company lauded for their UX decisions, how can they accept the current full screen/splitting workflow as "good enough"?

All the devs I know that work on Mac just have the windows casually thrown around and as a windows user with FancyZones I don’t know why but it bothers me so

Re: Cosmic: A New Desktop Environment

#117

Post by msephton »

candiddevmike wrote: post #108
msephton wrote: post #96

I see nothing really "different" or "better" here, in terms of visuals or ease of use. To that end... I don't see the point in imitating a desktop experience that is pretty stagnant and moving in the wrong direction (macOS; I'm a user myself) when there are the decades that preceded Y2K that could be mined for much more usable an interesting desktop experiences. There's BeOS, Amiga Workbench, Atari ST various windowi…

I'm really astounded that macOS window management is so bad. For a company lauded for their UX decisions, how can they accept the current full screen/splitting workflow as "good enough"?

I used to work there so it's mind-bogglingly disappointing

Re: Cosmic: A New Desktop Environment

#118

Post by squidbeak »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #51
mwidell wrote: post #43

Look at how the icons at the bottom have almost zero margin to the overly rounded sides. Why is it so hard for anyone outside of Apple to make a visually appealing GUI? It just requires a little bit of taste and sense of aesthetics. I am baffled that this hasn't happened yet. The closest thing so far is probably ElementaryOS.

It seems Linux is stuck in two worlds, never the Twain shall meet: 1. Engineers who are great at code, bad at UI and UX (unless your tastes are 1990s-2000s styles, you do you, but watch your market share always be niche. Reeducating the populace to see the superiority of your preferences compared to Apple is never going to happen.) 2. Engineers who are great at UI and UX but sloppy at fundamentals - take elementaryOS…

It's more granular than that. Engineers who are good at UI are often really bad at UX. Very often with Linux the UX has been sacrificed to some snazzy new look (Gnome 3 and Unity) with horrible UX. Meanwhile UX is quite seriously good in environments that look plain, such as XFCE.

But using KDE, Gnome, XFCE or Mate and then popping into the modern Windows' hellscape shows that actually Linux on the Desktop is already here and pretty damned good.

Re: Cosmic: A New Desktop Environment

#119

Post by bee_rider »

the_duke wrote: post #97

A lot of shallow "but the buttons!" comments here... no need to be so negative. This is the first alpha release of a full new desktop environment, built on a new GUI toolkit (based on Iced) and a new Wayland compositor, together with a suite of applications, all built from scratch in Rust .... give it some time. Most interesting to me is the integrated tiling support. I've been on i3/sway for many years, but a lean,…

It is sort of dumb but at this point I’ve bounced back and forth between i3 and sway long enough that I’m vaguely tired of them but also totally reliant on the key binds.

But if I’m going to switch to a DE… I mean, I already have a fine customized window manager setup. The point of a DE is that it doesn’t need to be customized much and comes with all the bells, most of the whistle pre-installed.

All that is to say, if new really interested in this as long as they ship it with a built in “i3-like key binds” option.

Re: Cosmic: A New Desktop Environment

#120

Post by msephton »

asynchronous wrote: post #116
candiddevmike wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm really astounded that macOS window management is so bad. For a company lauded for their UX decisions, how can they accept the current full screen/splitting workflow as "good enough"?

All the devs I know that work on Mac just have the windows casually thrown around and as a windows user with FancyZones I don’t know why but it bothers me so

Not me, I use a combination of Hammerspoon (keyboard) and Tiles app (mouse) to do quarter and third tiling. And I work on a portrait display!
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