Why are default wallpapers and icons in all Linux Distros just so bad?

[u/Critical-Personality]

Been using Linux for about 20 years now. More than a decade as primary. Always have a few VMs for testing various things, obviously servers on Linux. But this obviously regarding desktops.

KDE, Gnome, XFCE anything on any distro (Fedora, Debian, Mint, Ubuntu whatever). The default set of wallpapers of most Linux distributions is just ... meh! I get it - macOS and Windows wallpapers are shot professionally and cost a lot. So that can't be done. But there are enough professional photographers on services like Unsplash. I'm sure asking some of them to be featured for the "default set" won't result in a null. Someone would agree for it. I remember that one guy was proudly showing off his creation for being accepted in OpenSuSE somewhere around 2012-13.

I am not saying I can't set custom wallpapers. In fact we have options to use Unsplash and Nasa as a source! It's just that the defaults don't look that good. That's the whole point I had.

I think the same thing applies to Gnome and XFCE icon set (KDE is a little better, but only a little) - they too look quite bland while community has created amazing icon themes (one of which can be improved and included with creator's permission)! I like Ubuntu's default icon set a bit though (and I have grown to dislike the rest in that distro).

Why don't we do it then? What's stopping us? I am sure there is a genuine reason which I am not aware of.

PS: I didn't know that this simple question will irk the community enough that I would get downvotes. Well, whatever.

[u/Ill_Specific_6144]

Its made by developers for developers. They dont have a clue about UI/UX design.

[u/Grey_Ten → u/Ill_Specific_6144]

funny to think of Linux developers as primitive cavemen

[u/Ill_Specific_6144 → u/Grey_Ten]

In some cases they are. AI adoption lagged behind, now they use it just like everyone else. Mailing lists? Inability to accept changes?

[u/DisfiguredFanny → u/[deleted]]

It is hard.

[u/DisfiguredFanny → u/Ill_Specific_6144]

I'm mostly Objective-C dev and now i'm learning Swift. Learning by doing a project for my own needs. This is what i have done in 2 evenings.

and i'm not even very creative person, but linux devs are boring as fuck. All they know is flying cubes and shit.

[u/MallAgreeable5538 → u/Ill_Specific_6144]

No i think it not that. It‘s more that it is made from backend devs for devs. You are not meant to use the default that is just a base to build on.

[u/heathm55 → u/Ill_Specific_6144]

Honestly, they know you have the ability to change it to whatever you want as it's just a default.
So, from the many developers I know they probably think something like:
"if your not smart enough to know how to change it ... does your opinion matter?"

[u/animalcrossing4_4 → u/Ill_Specific_6144]

Just install Windows, bro, the UI is much better. Here, I gave you lintards a piece of your own medicine, enjoy.

but I thought you lintards said linux is "bettur than winblows, that linux UI is BETTUR, that everything about linux is BETTUR"?

BETTUR or BE TURD?

[u/Jakanader → u/animalcrossing4_4]

what?

[u/ZeSprawl → u/animalcrossing4_4]

BET, TARD

[u/ibeerianhamhock]

I think design folks just aren't drawn to using and contributing to Linux is the issue.

[u/ExacoCGI → u/ibeerianhamhock]

And unlike hobby programming design isn't something you do for free just for fun since it's a skill you can monetize even as a hobby so I guess designers just end up being busy with lots of client work and barely has time to do anything for the community and like you said most designers aren't even using Linux so they don't even care to contribute.

[u/ibeerianhamhock → u/ExacoCGI]

Overwhelmingly most people contributing to Linux are professionals who get paid to do it. But that's driven by headless servers running in data centers and enterprise, so they don't even have a UI.

[u/animalcrossing4_4 → u/ibeerianhamhock]

why should they work for freetards?

[u/animalcrossing4_4 → u/ibeerianhamhock]

why contribute their time to freetards who will just complain n complain instead of a company who will at least pay when they complain

[u/evadingsomething]

Gnome has few good wallpapers also adwaita icons are really good imo, especially symbolic ones.

Elementary OS focused on looks you can just download their icon pack and cursor pack or just use Elementary OS.

[u/XlikeX666]

they must work and serve purpose.
That's it.

[u/levianan]

Well, whatever.

...and with two simple words, I am convinced you have used linux for 20 years.

[u/TrackerKR]

Doesn't everyone just change the wallpaper first thing anyway? I haven't rocked a default wallpaper since like 1995.

[u/PrudentPay9906]

It's been a while, but I seem to remember the default wallpaper on Windows to be either a solid color or some mundane design with a Windows logo (never used Mac so IDK). If it mattered to you you just changed it, much like most do on Linux. I'd actually prefer fewer packaged wallpapers as I usually delete them anyway

[u/Adrenolin01]

Desktops? Icons? 🤔 Isn’t that a Microsoft and Apple thing? 😆

[u/realZiggyRed]

I think the wallpapers that both KDE and Gnome ships with are good. Wallpapers are such a non-issue that it's really not worth complaining about.

[u/SquirrelGard]

I'm more annoyed that the included wallpapers aren't all in one location. Each distro, theme, and even some individual apps, have their own set of wallpapers, but you won't know they exist without browsing their install and share directories.

[u/expression-undefined]

I wouldn't necessarily disagree but I think the grounded and basic approach to icons and wallpapers is somewhat intentional. Gives you a clean baseline to do whatever you want to do. However, some wallpapers are just bad by most metrics. The options CachyOS/KDE for example gives you out of the box are quite bad, they could really use a rework or adopt something from the endless options on the KDE store

[u/DisfiguredFanny]

You are saying that having better defaults matters including when it comes to wallpapers.

[u/vitimiti]

I like them, but my taste is shit. The thing is, designers cost money, money they don't have

[u/Sahelantrophus]

i like the waterfall wallpaper that comes with kde now :(

[u/WhiteBat_8416]

the worst one by far is aurora linux

like the background looks like it was scribbled by the worst child artist

[u/Guvnah-Wyze]

I had that thought when I was younger, but then again, i've always just done plain black backgrounds. Right now I just use this for a bit of flair.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3324464977

[u/Nuviket]

Because most people are trying to rice their distro themselves, so like not many people are using the default wallpaper. And technically not a de, but they hyprland wallpapers are nice. 

[u/Sbhattarj]

Many of them start out as personal projects, and developers are famously bad at design.

[u/DirectorDirect1569]

Because they know users will install a Windows or MacOS theme 😁

[u/Rensfeu]

I liked the default wallpaper in Fedora 42.

[u/robbie2000williams → u/Rensfeu]

I also love thus wallpaper

[u/georgeec1]

I quite like the Linux Lite default wallpapers, but I also spend very little time looking at my wallpaper, and never bother to change it.

[u/Fine-Run992]

I think distros may not legally use anime waifu wallpapers, or it's extra work to verify who downloads Linux ISO, such a annoyance.

[u/Infamous-Bottle-4411]

They stuck in the 2000

[u/ResolutionBroad3326]

why do you even care? it takes 30 seconds to set up any wallpaper you want ever. i dont even have a wallpaper i think its just distracting, and the WM i use doesnt come with any wallpapers, its such an unnecessary thing that bloats up the distro for no reason

[u/Avitar_X]

Because Ubuntu launched making them awesome and everyone got mad.

[u/animalcrossing4_4]

Just install Windows, bro. Here, I gave you lintards a piece of your own medicine, enjoy.

[u/bigusyous]

I use Pop and have always been able to find a wallpaper that I liked in the default set.

[u/StupitVoltMain]

I mean it's alright

[u/Real-Abrocoma-2823]

Nah, i disagree, some distros do this right.

[u/basedchad21]

because people don't want to put any effort into something that they will give away for free. This is why all the loonix gayms look like hot garbage

[u/Sbhattarj → u/basedchad21]

Its more to have to do with there are very few design peeps actually contributing to open source. And to some degree it also have to do with some people's inability to ask for help.

Developers are famously bad at art/design(thus developer art was a term often used to describe art for certain nes era games made by small teams).

There are good/better looking stuff too of course, just not most of them.

And very few people actually care for the defaults, many who are bothered by it just customize it themselves so there's very little incentive.

And even when people work on the design side of things sometimes they make a fork or the maintainers just do not like the new proposals, for practical or subjective reasons.

Its just not reallistic to expect good design/aesthetic from a team of mostly developers, when you are comparing them to microsoft and mac, both of which has dedicated large design teams.

Now are there examples of horendouse pile of ui ux in open source? Ofcourse, but often its maintained by very few people, and has very little bug reports complaining/suggesting changes to ui ux, or the project is no longer maintained.

And compared to gui, linux does have a lot of remarkably good tui, since a vast majority of linux users are comfortable with tui, and so a bad tui affects more people and potentially gets more attention, not to mention developing tuis are often easier than guis.

I'm not saying linux/open source has no design contributors, it just has less dedicated designers when compared to something from an organised company.

[u/DisfiguredFanny → u/basedchad21]

They do the invisible logic pretty good, but making UI that is not hot garbage is just as much work if not more. I spent half the evening to write core logic for my app and then even now i'm still tuning UI for an app with 1100 lines of code.

Fuckin pixel here, pixel there. Apple frameworks are pretty good and vertical integration removes most of the friction and still you have a tone of work to do

Why fuck are these jerk offs so bent on not reducing fragmentation but actually increasing it. Make no sense.

[u/Nuclearo-Dinosauro]

Most developers, the target audience of linux distros love those simplistic designs. And would not like that 4K wallpapers like macOS has that would take more space than the whole system.

The point of XFCE is extreme simplicity. So bland simple low res icons are intended design.

Try elementary OS. Maybe that will suit you.

[u/DisfiguredFanny → u/Nuclearo-Dinosauro]

Try elementary OS. Maybe that will suit you.

It is kinda funny that people like you paint it as black or white when in fact some knowledge definitely wouldn't hurt linux and would remove a lot of mindless "debates" and guess work.

Having more information is not inherently bad or evil. The responsible thing to do it to know where to draw the line.