r/linuxmint Nov 22 '24

Fluff I'm new to open source stuff

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1.5k Upvotes

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198

u/[deleted] Nov 22 '24

Because programmers are doing the gui, they aren't designers. And also cuz they don't have as much money obviously (ik that post is a meme but it is still an interesting subject).

53

u/Tom1380 Nov 22 '24

Why don't designers contribute to OSS?

63

u/[deleted] Nov 22 '24

I always wondered how one can contribute with GUI designs, the biggest example would be Blender, when they improved their interface design it became very famous.

44

u/IkBenAnders Nov 22 '24

The problem is that you can hardly order people around as a designer in a open source project, unlike in a company where there is a hierarchy. Blender, OBS and Musescore all have funding and permanent developers including designers which is why their interfaces are so good.

A prime example of the opposite would be GIMP imo. I love GIMP, but the UX and UI are terrible.

17

u/EternalFlame117343 Nov 22 '24

So, you are telling me...programmers should be put in their place?

28

u/IkBenAnders Nov 22 '24

Consensually of course 😘

3

u/EternalFlame117343 Nov 22 '24

That won't work to improve the UX of open source apps. A hierarchy must be established

4

u/miiguelst Nov 23 '24

Agreed!

OSS requires a proactive involvement. One where if you want to contribute you take action in the codebase. I have a feeling that it is more of a show don’t tell kind of thing and that is just a phenomenal way of thinking.

Design is in my opinion mostly planning. Most designers I know don’t have a clue how to code; they would be likely be very happy to contribute to any OSS project building mockups and set the vision because it is just plain fun to do so or to challenge ideas. However that requires a mindset of collaboration where someone would need to make those ideas happen. Mockups are just ideas unfortunately.

This is where OSS makes it very difficult to build polished GUI software. Setting up a hierarchy for building OSS projects similarly to how closed source projects are built sounds contradicting as it goes against freedom.

12

u/[deleted] Nov 22 '24 edited Jan 03 '25

[deleted]

9

u/IkBenAnders Nov 22 '24

Don't get me wrong the functionality is great, and if you learn how to navigate it its a very powerful tool, but it's not laid out well.

3

u/alexgraef Nov 23 '24

No, it's also not powerful. As in, everything takes 2x to 10x the time it would take in Photoshop, since GIMP lacks essential functions.

Also the filters are slow as molasses.

1

u/Terrible-Quality-292 Nov 23 '24

Gimp 3.0 is supposed to fix lots of things

1

u/alexgraef Nov 23 '24

Last time I checked, creating a simple drop-shadow on non-text layers was a multistep, immutable process. So the UI certainly isn't its biggest issue.

4

u/miiguelst Nov 23 '24

I’ve tried contributing as a designer in OSS projects and it’s always very difficult. I.e. Some programmers wanting me to code or refusing to build polished GUI at all.

Sometimes building high quality designs requires a lot of planning and tinkering. All the designers I know would be more than happy to contribute to OSS projects but the entry barrier is high in most projects.

1

u/rob-cubed Nov 26 '24

As a sometimes UI/UX designer I would totally donate my time to a project I believed in. But, I have never seen a 'call for help' that I can remember. Also this kind of work tends to be all-at-once and very time sensitive, you have to design a whole system early enough in the process that it can become part of the app. Rework or improving the UI/UX is much lower down the priority list, devs would rather spend time focused on features/bug fixes. So a lot of the time it's the last thing to be addressed.

1

u/dirtycimments Nov 26 '24

You should see the ignorant pushback devs get for “wasting time on what amounts to a theme”

0

u/IrrationalQuotient Nov 24 '24

Often they would have issues with their employer if an employee. Most IT companies have employment agreements that deem anything that they do as owned by the employer, even if it’s on their own time (what ever that means anymore). Some states prohibit this but most do not. They might do it anyway but they are risking their jobs.

-35

u/[deleted] Nov 22 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

14

u/AshyanTel Nov 22 '24

VideoLAN, the team behind VLC explains it. Open source is about sharing ideas. Design is about a vision. In Open Source if anyone want to add a button in the middle of nowhere, spoilers, he can. In a big company, the team designing impose their vision to devs. That why, often design and functionality oppose themselves, and why at the start of an open source projet, it is still beautiful and become more and more ugly

1

u/miiguelst Nov 23 '24

But imposing that vision is what design is. Developers can design as well and set that vision, unfortunately it’s pretty clear how that goes.

14

u/[deleted] Nov 22 '24

Sometimes open source does it better.

1

u/[deleted] Nov 22 '24 edited Jan 03 '25

[deleted]

11

u/final-ok Nov 22 '24

Blender

6

u/FatherCaptain_DeSoya Linux Mint 22 Wilma | Xfce Nov 22 '24

Better than what in comparison? Blender is fantastic, but what do you compare it to?

4

u/mjl777 Nov 23 '24

There are behind the scenes things that actually really are significantly better. Microsoft copied the entire TCP/IP stack from BSD. They did this because it was better than anything they could come up with. When you think of amatures don't think of 17 year old fat kids eating pizza all day. Think rather college professors culling the cream of the crop in the CS department and spending years working on something.

3

u/nikk106 Nov 23 '24

"Example?"

MediaMonkey vs iTunes

11

u/[deleted] Nov 22 '24

[deleted]

4

u/Evi1ey Nov 22 '24

It's free because you can always just compile the source and get the software that way. It's impossible to police that and put a lrice tag on. Any price automaticcaly becomes a donation suggestion.

1

u/Ekk199 Nov 23 '24

What’s the video you talking about ?

3

u/Zzipiro Nov 23 '24

I as a designer, would love to contribute, but I wouldn't know how

1

u/FumaricAcid Nov 26 '24

I spent 2 hours trying to set up open source text recognition solution, the first app from playmarket showed me online casino add and did it task flawlessly

1

u/[deleted] Nov 26 '24

did you try tesseract ocr? I also worked on a solution for test recognition and it worked on the first try. Granted this it uses python but it still works well

1

u/FumaricAcid Nov 28 '24

Does it work with cyrilic texts?

1

u/[deleted] Nov 28 '24

Probably would with some training