OP on r*ddit here
the best part is that if you want it too look this sweet it’s all through gui menus and simple interfaces. You download themes through theme browsers in settings. It literally couldn’t be easier imo.
imo I think that this doesn’t looks too much like MacOS outside of the dock/menubar combo, which if you’re going to have a dock at all you have to have something like a menubar. Most people lean towards a mac style than a windows style but end up doing what they want with it, like this. The thing with linux and especially with kde is that whatever you don’t like about this setup you can change to your liking.
KDE/GNOME/etc are pretty customizable but the best you’ll ever be able to get on Linux is “shitty macOS” due to fundamental problems with the Linux ecosystem due to fragmentation (both software components and the community itself), lack of interest, and lack of resources (the only people actually getting paid to work on linux UX are basically catering exclusively to thinkpad using neckbeards at redhat). The only two reasons to use Linux as a desktop operating system are because the alternatives are out of your budget or youre ideologically committed to only using free software which is why Desktop Linux market share continues to plummet. I used to be excited about the prospect of the Linux Desktop but at this point I think the basic structure of both Linux as a software ecosystem and the community itself make it impossible to get something above barely usable.
the only people actually getting paid to work on linux UX are basically catering exclusively to thinkpad using neckbeards at redhat
I actually agree with that, but I think on the desktops themselves it’s been getting better recently with KDE 5.21 and GNOME 40. Applications are getting better looking as well, GTK 3 and 4 have been really good looking for the most part and while KDE and qt apps in general have leaned more towards the classic and dense design style, newer efforts towards convergence with the Kirigami framework and the (imo much better looking)MauiKit framework have been pushing KDE and it’s apps toward a more modern and clean look and feel.
Somewhat seperate of all that though, there’s been a lot of development on linux in china to help avoid dependency on windows and american services in general. Because of this a lot of new projects have popped up that aim towards a more general audience. Some of the most notable (and ones I enjoy the most) are Deepin which started out with a more MacOS look and feel but has found it’s own style and it’s pretty unique and really good looking right now. There’s also Ubuntu Kylin and the UKUI desktop environment (unfortunately I can’t access the websites for some reason) which is very inspired by windows but like Deepin it has somewhat branched off in it’s own way. Lastly there’s JingOS which has a lot of potential as a mobile linux desktop/distribution. It even has it’s own device coming out in china at some point, but at the moment the system itself is still very early on and rough so we’ll have to wait and see for that. Because these are all developed for normal people they are more simple and specifically avoid reliance on the command line for normal things.
I agree that linux has some trouble letting go of the past, but it is slowly doing it. Linux has a lot of potential still and linux gaming, which has been one of the biggest reasons people don’t/can’t switch over, is also steadily improving. The future of linux is bright. It’s customizable, its secure, it supports more hardware than any other system ever, it can be as simple or brain crushingly complex as you like, it can be as stable or as bleeding edge as you like and best of all it’s libre software so you can do anything you want to it, anyone can do anything they want to it, and you stand only to gain from that.
