Linked by Thom Holwerda on Tue 1st Jan 2013 18:19 UTC
I tend to believe that the best interfaces have already been made. Behaviourally, CDE is the best and most consistent interface ever made. It looked like ass, but it always did exactly as you told it to, and it never did anything unexpected. When it comes to looks, however, the gold standard comes from an entirely different corner - Apple's Platinum and QNX' PhotonUI. Between all the transparency, flat-because-it's-hip, and stitched leather violence of the past few years, one specific KDE theme stood alone in bringing the best of '90s UI design into the 21st century, and updating it to give everything else a run for its money. This is an ode to Christoph Feck's Skulpture.
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Member since:
2009-06-30
The UI theme/style can't change the way applications are written. KDE applications (more than pure Qt ones) come with loads of GUI widgets. All these MDIs, nested tabs, movable docks and toolbars look as if the authors felt obliged to demonstrate all the bells and whistles Qt and kdelibs come with.
As for the styles, I found the basic Qt styles (cleanlooks, polyester) the most pleasant and usable. Plasma is a different story, let me know if you see anything of matching quality.