cross-posted from: https://lemmy.kde.social/post/4749799
Coming to your favorite desktop: cool interface re-designs (rounded corners! Automatic smooth light-to-dark transitions!), features (smart KRunner searches! Pinned clipboard items!) and tons of usability and accessibility improvements.
I am using KDE/Plasma since 20 years or so.
Each time I have go back to Windows 11, it feels like using an inconsistent and incomplete UI semester project done by some students still in their elementary semesters.Can’t tell if in that last part you’re talking about KDE/Plasma or about Windows 11.
I thought “it” in this case would clearly refer to “having to go back to Windows” from the first part of the sentence.
But I am not a native English speaker, perhaps there’s a difference to the use in my language?How would you use “it” as a reference correctly in English here?
Your use of “it” wasn’t incorrect. English allows for grammatically correct sentences that are nevertheless potentially ambiguous.
The confusion arises because “it” refers to the antecedent noun in a sentence, and nouns are typically considered the “subject” of a sentence. However, there is also a “subject” of discussion—which shifted to being the messiness of the Windows 11 UI. Thus, “it” became a vague reference.
The only “fix” is to restate the noun to which you are attempting to refer.
For example: “I put my laptop in my bag. When I went to grab my bag, I dropped it.”
Did I drop my bag or did I drop my laptop? The answer is unclear. A clearer statement would be something like: “I put my laptop in my bag. I dropped the bag containing my laptop when I attempted to grab my bag.”
Or, “I put my laptop in my bag. When I went to grab my bag, I dropped my laptop out of the bag.”
How you phrase your meaning depends upon whichever situation you intended to convey, but the solution is to avoid the use of the word “it” entirely.
Isn’t English a wonderful language? (Sarcasm) 😁
Thanks, that has been really helpful advice!
I will try to keep it in mind and rather re-mention the stuff that I refer to instead of using pronouns for the sake of clarity.
That will be hard for me, though. I do love my tapeworm-sentences with lots of indirections and implicit references… ;-)
I’m no native english speaker either, but have seen people bitching about the supposed lack of design in KDE so I felt I needed to ask
Design as in “graphical design”?
And even if, they probably also weren’t comparing to Win11 design, I guess, because even that is inconsistent (and an eyesore on top…)
You both seem to be using the language correctly. I wouldn’t have guessed either of you weren’t native speakers.
Except for @Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de ’s use of “elementary semesters”… seems their first language is German.
Wie gehts?
Man kann nicht genug klagen… Und selber?
Und ja, ich habe beim Schreiben schon vermutet, dass meine eher wörtliche Übersertzung von “Grundstudium” möglicherweise nicht so 100% korrekt sein könnte.
Aber mir ist aber auf Anhieb auch nix Besseres eingefallen… 🤷♂️Ohhhhh my… I fucked up. You caught me acting like I know more than it do 🤦♂️. I took a bit of German in high school, then two semesters of German as an undergraduate in college, but it’s been more than 20 years since those courses, lol.
I think “undergraduate” is what you meant by “elementary”… that is a bachelor’s degree program. Without looking it up first, you definitely succeeded in getting your point across. I didn’t think you were non-native, I just thought you were British 😂
With a bit of help from my translator app, I was able to parse your “auf Deutsch” response ☺️
Gonna give a quick counterpoint as someone who has used everything from Enlightenment WM to Windows 3.1, to Irix and who now uses GNOME:
I flipped over to Plasma the other day to see if I was missing out and I am not. Plasma felt unrefined and cluttered and seemed overly influenced by Windows. I switched back.
I will probably check it out again if they continue to make progress, but I, for one, prefer GNOME.
Gnome is either a you love it as it is or you just hate it there is no in between because there’s no customizability. I love KDE plasma because of all its million options that usually put gnome users off. I don’t want my desktop to be exactly like everyone else’s I have a particular way I want things laid out a particular spot I want options particular things I want shown particular things I don’t want shown.
The lack of notification app tray on gnome alone puts me off, the full screen app drawer is another. I don’t want that on my desktop it’s not a tablet. I don’t find it enjoyable to use on my large desktop screen with a mouse.
On KDE, if I don’t like something with the default configuration there’s a 95% chance that I can change it to something that I would like. On gnome i get to either pound sand or install an extension that will probably break on the next update.
And that’s fine we don’t have to agree with one another that’s the glory of Linux and user choice
I prefaced my response by saying it was a counterpoint.
🤷♂️
When searching for “winver” it will now show the “About this System” page in Plasma 6.6.
I will just offer this as evidence that Plasma seems targeted at a different user base than what I belong to. Others can decide for themselves what they’re looking for.
I never said it wasn’t a counterpoint, I never said it was wrong, I was just responding to your feeling that it’s cluttered and unfocused. Those are the very aspects that make me enjoy it and are the reason I don’t really like gnome. Focused only works if you happen to agree with the focus that was chosen and I’m very glad that the chosen one of gnome works for you.
But that freedom flexibility that comes with the unfocused nature of plasma is exactly what makes me love it. You are correct that it is absolutely attempting to cater to Windows users in its default configuration the idea is for it to be a simple close to Windows default so that they can more easily acclimate themselves to a different operating system. It’s why it’s so often recommended to people who are switching trying to put them on gnome where literally nothing works like what they are used to is setting them up for failure in many cases.
But it then also gives you the power to customize once you are more comfortable to the point that you can just basically practically make a gnome workflow clone if you wanted. Or OSX, tiled, whatever you want really. But it is true that that means there’s no really unified workflow within plasma so I can see how it looks cluttered and unfocused
