File picker meme

This isn't true, some X11 window managers don't draw any title bars.

Anyway this isn't a problem if you link against GTK or libdecor. Yeah it's broken if you're trying to work against the system and do things in the inconsistent way that they were done in X11, so... don't do that?

I have no idea how to efficiently operate Apple's design, but I've never had a problem with the Windows file picker. Same with Gnome, to be honest, except when I'm trying to pick an image file. Out of all the UI options, I don't think the grid or list views are the biggest problem here.

I don't know what kind of view you expect, but even on phones you'll get grids and lists when picking a file. Every application on the desktop as far as I know has a mechanism to remember the last folder opened, but searches are rarely repeated. I think that makes sense because searches are usually for one specific file, and the probability that you want to open the exact same file multiple times in a row is relatively low compared to the probability that you want to open a file from the same folder. Windows Collections and the search folder mechanism do allow you to use such a method of file picking, though, because the virtual folders that every application already supports can be reused and customised to your hearts desire.

As for why it's still a flat overview of files and folders, it's probably performance related. On my machine, I can find pretty much any file by hitting the super key and typing. Gnome Tracker and Windows Search index all the files in my home directory and searching is pretty much instant. On hard drives the searching is slower, but at the same time the indexing barely ever runs because the hard drive is always busy (or the indexer is slowing down the whole system, like on Windows Vista).

Automated collections of images and video files work great in a sandboxes environment but Android's buggy file picker shows what happens with that paradigm in an arbitrary file structure, often missing pictures or listing deleted ones on my device because an app used the wrong API or a database sync is still running in the background. My device isn't even a particularly cheap one, I can't imagine how often people with $100 phones run it to this mess.

Maybe Microsoft dialed back the ads on the Surface, but on other platforms Windows is full of dark patterns to advertise Microsoft's own software. Just recently I've had to give admin permission to my computer to dismiss a warning from Windows Defender that I'm not signed into OneDrive.

I can't say I see the same value in the strong points of the Surface you see, but I have to admit that it's a shame how little good competition there is to the Surface line in terms of convertibles. Apple could easily outcompete Microsoft by providing a professional version of the iPad Pro that runs normal applications, but their desire for simplifying and locking down general purpose computers seems to prevent them from doing so. Other manufacturers like Dell and Lenovo simply don't seem to put out the same quality of hardware.

And telling me all Linux apps they should link against GTK would make me angry if it wasn’t so stupid.

P.S. edit: I’d just to like to add:

- Please don’t take my harsh tone too personally. I’m not pissed off at people, I am pissed off at their initiatives sometimes though. I don’t really harbor any ill will towards individual developers. I think if you make decisions that impact an ecosystem it’s only natural that strong emotions will emerge.

- The main reason why GNOME solutions are not really landing that well is specifically because they are attacking the problem more from GNOME’s philosophical standpoint than from the standpoint of what is best for applications. KDE does not appear to be embodying the CSD initiative, which is actually Good for GNOME users, since KDE apps will likely feel a ton more native in GNOME as a result. Certainly more than GNOME apps do in KDE… but it also means that libdecor is kind of moot, because what we as app developers really want is one solution that gives us fully native basic window borders everywhere. And to do that, we need a solution that starts from the common ground (xdg-decoration) then goes into special cases (GNOME, Weston, etc.)