Damn, those screenshots. It’s been so many years and everything looks so unpolished still. Wrong margins, wrong font size, bad font choice, etc. They really need a professional designer.
kaladin-jasnah · 42m ago
I use KDE every day. It's totally fair if people notice that stuff; I have many friends who do, but not everyone does (like me). I care more about functionality. In which case KDE is just about fine.
I guess the people who use KDE don't maybe care about this sort of polish enough, which is why it doesn't get fixed?
graemep · 16m ago
I do not care much.
I do use third party themes but I suspect they have the same problems. I just have some colour preferences and like pretty icons.
I prefer to have third party apps icons overridden by the icon theme, but then I can just use another icon theme.
bundie · 37m ago
I dunno how to explain it, but to me, Plasma looks "bad" in a "good," or should I say "consistent," way.
Like, it looks "bad," but it's honestly not that bad.
codr7 · 38m ago
Likewise, none of that bothers me as much as Apple's design over function madness lately.
cosmic_cheese · 25m ago
Yeah. I’ve used KDE on and off a few times, but this aspect of it always bugs me. It can be dampened a bit by changing themes but ultimately fixing it would mean fairly major changes to almost everything, at which point you gotta start wondering if you wouldn’t be better off building your own thing.
While nether is perfect I feel that both Cinnamon and XCFE get these things a lot closer to right on average.
ndriscoll · 25m ago
The user controls system font and size. It looks fine to me? KDE is also basically the only usable non-power user desktop environment these days. The margins/padding are a little big, but it's better than most modern applications that professionals produce.
cosmic_cheese · 1m ago
I am not a designer, just a dev with a bit of a visual inclination, but I think what makes KDE’s typography feel “off” is missing steps in visual hierarchy due to how the different sizes relate to each other in screen, as well as font weights being a bit too homogenous. The font sizes being modifiable isn’t the issue.
hnlmorg · 32m ago
To be fair to KDE, it feels a hell of a lot more polished when you use it.
The default themes are a little “meh” at times but the functionality is absolutely spot on. And those defaults are very easy to change.
The nice thing about KDE is that it gives you a rock solid foundation and encourages customisation to tailor the experience to the user’s preferences. Which is fast becoming an uncommon trait in software what with “opinionated” being heralded as a good thing.
oblio · 27m ago
It won't ever happen.
KDE was first launched in 1996, almost 27 years ago. I first used it in 2005, it was my first DE.
They've been doing the same thing since before many here were even born.
The content has a bigger right margin than the left margin. It's probably a 5 minute change but nobody developing cares enough to do it. There aren't enough volunteers with an eye for this stuff, and the ones that are there probably can't override other developers that don't care.
At this point I guess we just have to accept it as part of its charm :-)
Edit 1: regarding the UI font choices, are there some good articles/books about this?
Edit 2: A similar story with KDE on Windows. KDE 4, based on Qt 4, was supposed the "Windows take over release". We're 16 years after the fact and there aren't enough developers to make this a reality. In fact, I think even the basic port from back in the day has been abandoned.
graemep · 16m ago
Why did you have to say this!? Now I will noice! never did before!
:)
tiahura · 19m ago
The funny part is that articles dumping on Windows UI get ranked up all of the time (like presently), but the alternatives are all 10x worse.
diggan · 9m ago
Personally I dump on both Windows and macOS for being UI and UX dumpster-fires today, compared to how they used to be. macOS in particular used to have really good UX, but as times goes on, Apple seems to ignore the actual design of software more and more, for reasons that elude me.
And I do know that all the other alternatives suck too, I'm using Gnome daily and it isn't perfect by any metric either, but it's always been like that, it's not getting better nor worse, while Windows and macOS used to be a lot better, and is getting worse. I guess that's why people are reacting stronger to it.
simion314 · 5m ago
I love KDE, I am using it for 2 decades, I can't see the margins or font issues this other people see and I spend my time at the PC looking at the browser, Kate, Intellij and the deskotp panel and maybe a bit at the file manager Dolphin.
Why i love KDE is because I can customize it to work as I want not as it wants me to work, I do not bend my fingers to use what soem dude with GIANT ego wants me to use as key shortcuts, I remap them to fit my preferences, and I have a fucking tray icon where I can see if I have unread messages and guess what you can remove the Tray if you are that kind of fascist that hates it because the GIANT ego dude said that tray icons are not cool.
bundie · 4m ago
> some dude [...] wants me to use as key shortcuts
Icon themes modifying the developer-provided icons was always a strange thing to me in many Linux distributions.
Even often hard or hidden to disable this behavior.
My workaround already was using Breeze, since it does the least modification compared to other themes available by default. Glad to see it continue in this direction.
Gualdrapo · 1h ago
Well, the point of custom icon themes is, you know, customize an icon theme.
That being said, it's expected the default icon theme does little to nothing about customizing a third party icon. When I was involved (briefly) with the KDE VDG back when 5 was about to be launched I proposed a icon style that looked completely different of what Breeze looks right now - maybe something in between of what Oxygen looks like and Breeze looks like. But Jens Reutenberg told me it couldn't go in that direction since they needed to ship certain icons "as-is", like the Firefox one, so it was better to do something that could fit anything so those "special" icons wouldn't look out of place.
Some people like to diss on flat/minimalism styles but for some situations there is a reason they look that way.
panzi · 28m ago
It takes me at least 3 times as long to find what I need with these minimalist monochrome icons, though. I always opt to the more colorful ones, if possible.
bmacho · 9m ago
Can't you just right click an icon, set it to whatever you want (including the original one), and then lock it so subsequent theme changes won't change it? DE people are moving in all the wrong directions :/
The submission title makes it a bigger deal than it is, the article clarifies that "The team reasoned that overriding another developer's branding is rude, and it also lacks the resources to maintain the icons as branding changes over time." and "Anyone who misses the old look is welcome to create a new icon theme and upload it to the KDE Store.". Nothing has really changed, especially not newsworthy.
panzi · 32m ago
The colors help me to more quickly recognize the icons!!
nar001 · 1h ago
It makes sense: Easier to just let people make their own icons for their software, rather than maintain your own, especially when the number of programs is basically endless, so you'd always have to work on it
I guess the people who use KDE don't maybe care about this sort of polish enough, which is why it doesn't get fixed?
I do use third party themes but I suspect they have the same problems. I just have some colour preferences and like pretty icons.
I prefer to have third party apps icons overridden by the icon theme, but then I can just use another icon theme.
Like, it looks "bad," but it's honestly not that bad.
While nether is perfect I feel that both Cinnamon and XCFE get these things a lot closer to right on average.
The default themes are a little “meh” at times but the functionality is absolutely spot on. And those defaults are very easy to change.
The nice thing about KDE is that it gives you a rock solid foundation and encourages customisation to tailor the experience to the user’s preferences. Which is fast becoming an uncommon trait in software what with “opinionated” being heralded as a good thing.
KDE was first launched in 1996, almost 27 years ago. I first used it in 2005, it was my first DE.
They've been doing the same thing since before many here were even born.
Look at this image:
https://cdn.neowin.com/news/images/uploaded/2025/08/17553423...
The content has a bigger right margin than the left margin. It's probably a 5 minute change but nobody developing cares enough to do it. There aren't enough volunteers with an eye for this stuff, and the ones that are there probably can't override other developers that don't care.
At this point I guess we just have to accept it as part of its charm :-)
Edit 1: regarding the UI font choices, are there some good articles/books about this?
Edit 2: A similar story with KDE on Windows. KDE 4, based on Qt 4, was supposed the "Windows take over release". We're 16 years after the fact and there aren't enough developers to make this a reality. In fact, I think even the basic port from back in the day has been abandoned.
:)
And I do know that all the other alternatives suck too, I'm using Gnome daily and it isn't perfect by any metric either, but it's always been like that, it's not getting better nor worse, while Windows and macOS used to be a lot better, and is getting worse. I guess that's why people are reacting stronger to it.
Why i love KDE is because I can customize it to work as I want not as it wants me to work, I do not bend my fingers to use what soem dude with GIANT ego wants me to use as key shortcuts, I remap them to fit my preferences, and I have a fucking tray icon where I can see if I have unread messages and guess what you can remove the Tray if you are that kind of fascist that hates it because the GIANT ego dude said that tray icons are not cool.
It's okay to say GNOME.
My workaround already was using Breeze, since it does the least modification compared to other themes available by default. Glad to see it continue in this direction.
That being said, it's expected the default icon theme does little to nothing about customizing a third party icon. When I was involved (briefly) with the KDE VDG back when 5 was about to be launched I proposed a icon style that looked completely different of what Breeze looks right now - maybe something in between of what Oxygen looks like and Breeze looks like. But Jens Reutenberg told me it couldn't go in that direction since they needed to ship certain icons "as-is", like the Firefox one, so it was better to do something that could fit anything so those "special" icons wouldn't look out of place.
Some people like to diss on flat/minimalism styles but for some situations there is a reason they look that way.
The submission title makes it a bigger deal than it is, the article clarifies that "The team reasoned that overriding another developer's branding is rude, and it also lacks the resources to maintain the icons as branding changes over time." and "Anyone who misses the old look is welcome to create a new icon theme and upload it to the KDE Store.". Nothing has really changed, especially not newsworthy.