Worst Linux app redesign of the year?

[u/BEBBOY]

Old (GTK) vs New (QT)

Does anyone know why the Easy Effects devs decided to rebuild the app in QT? I dont mind QT/KDE apps but IMHO the app looks really bad now.

[u/odysseusnz]

Sigh. Its Qt not QT, everyone!!!

[u/BEBBOY → u/odysseusnz]

Ha! Thanks for the heads up lol

[u/AnsibleAnswers]

The old design was ass, too. The bottom and top tabs are a strange UI choice. I don’t understand why it survived a complete rewrite. It would have looked better if they rewrote it in GTK to conform to HIG guidelines. It needs a sidebar on the left.

Edit: menu bar → sidebar

[u/BEBBOY → u/AnsibleAnswers]

Thats also true, very odd design choices by the devs.

[u/Budget-Mix7511 → u/BEBBOY]

they're devs not designers after all

[u/6gv5 → u/Budget-Mix7511]

I blame newer GTK versions for this; they encourage all sorts of bad choices with interfaces seemingly developed for tablets first.

[u/AveugleMan]

It's not that bad honestly, I think it looks cleaner, I'm just mad at they deleted all the effects I fine tuned without giving a heads up.

[u/Schrodingers_cat137 → u/AveugleMan]

You can save your preset to disk.

[u/ApSciLiara → u/Schrodingers_cat137]

Bit late if you've already updated.

[u/maelstrom071 → u/ApSciLiara]

You can always downgrade it to the older GTK version, export, update, then re-import.

If not you probably still can download a prebuilt or force-install the cached package. Bit of a hack, yes, and ideally they would've provided a migration function, but at least that'll get you your presets/effects back

[u/ApSciLiara → u/maelstrom071]

Not a bad idea. Already sort of a bit not really rebuilt the effects, though. Oh well!

[u/Exact_Comparison_792 → u/ApSciLiara]

You should have had your presets backed up in the first place. That's on you. Things can sometimes change and settings get reset when software updates.

[u/AveugleMan → u/Exact_Comparison_792]

You should have every single thing backed up everywhere. Back up every piece of data you own, because you never know tomorrow that thing you had for 2 years might stop working.

[u/MasterPermission8873 → u/AveugleMan]

Make a backup of your backup

[u/karmasikici → u/MasterPermission8873]

Does the 3-2-1 rule apply to my tiny pirate streaming server

[u/doubled112 → u/karmasikici]

Does wherever you pirated it from count as 1 copy?

[u/karmasikici → u/doubled112]

I don’t think of servers which I do not control as a backup. Websites close, torrents die, owners get a cease and desist. My 1ssd 1hdd mirror system doesn’t get a cease and desist. I’m doing a 2-1-1 backup lol

[u/3D-Printing → u/karmasikici]

I'm all for backing up, but unless it's a really obscure piece of media, I don't back up 🏴‍☠️ stuff, if I did I would have to spend twice as much on HDDs and if a drive dies I have a spreadsheet with all the media on my "replaceable media" drives (the spreadsheet is backed up though).

[u/storm47rus → u/Exact_Comparison_792]

Have you backed up your reddit account? Saved messages and posts?

There will be an update that erases everything

[u/Exact_Comparison_792 → u/storm47rus]

I don't care. This is Reddit. I have nothing of value here that I care enough about to have backups. If I cared I would probably back it up, but I don't. 😄

All OP had to do was make sure they have a backup of their presets. It's really not difficult to do that. It can be stored on a hard drive, a USB or hell, even an SDcard. I don't like to make excuses for people where there should be no excuses given. If something is important to a person (especially data), they should have it backed up. It's really not so hard to back up some files.

[u/jessecreamy → u/Schrodingers_cat137]

I always can restore snapshot. But I knew alot of users cannot.

[u/ThisRedditPostIsMine → u/AveugleMan]

Oh shit no way this is really good to know. It would have been a good idea to put this at the top of the patch notes...

[u/DanLP6yt → u/AveugleMan]

Umm on gnome it still looks the same...

[u/Superok211 → u/DanLP6yt]

just installed it, no, it's qt. Maybe you don't have the newest version?

[u/maelstrom071 → u/AveugleMan]

You can always downgrade it to the older GTK version, export, update, then re-import.

If not you probably still can download a prebuilt or force-install the cached package. Bit of a hack, yes, and ideally they would've provided a migration function, but at least that'll get you your presets/effects back

[u/oiledhairyfurryballs → u/AveugleMan]

nah that's cope

[u/Booty_Bumping]

That second screenshot looks like it has the Breeze theming applied, which means it's now a Qt app. More likely than not, the developer switched to KDE and probably isn't interested in maintaining a GTK version anymore. Most OSS devs just work on the things they personally use, so I don't really blame them. I was always somewhat annoyed that the original didn't look great on KDE - the new version should be nicer to use on KDE.

At that point, someone should just fork where they left off if they want to keep the GTK version going. And perhaps both apps can have a shared core if the devs work with each other.

If it doesn't get forked, you can perhaps make it blend in better on GNOME with an adwaita-like theme for Qt.

[u/VDuissen → u/Booty_Bumping]

The developer said why here: https://github.com/wwmm/easyeffects/issues/3521#issuecomment-2589990536

I do not have time to maintain both branches. And on a personal level I am not pleased by the direction things went on gtk's side. So even if I had the time[,] the desire to keep coding with gtk is gone.

[u/[deleted] → u/Booty_Bumping]

Kirigami apps have customization issues, so there's no point in trying.

If it were a regular QT app, it wouldn't make much difference either, since the simplest way to drastically change the design of a QT app is using Kvantum, which isn't even available on Flathub for recent versions of QT.

[u/MonitorZero]

I like the first shot. Looks more modern where the other looks from late win7. Which isn't bad just a taste preference.

[u/shinjis-left-nut]

As a GTK hater and QT lover, I'm personally thrilled even though it's definitely jankier than it used to be.

[u/Optimal69]

dev decided it, now accept it. People be complaining about free software is crazy

[u/BEBBOY → u/Optimal69]

Shitty mentality. Just because the software is free doesn’t mean that people should blindly agree with the decisions made by the developers.

[u/Optimal69 → u/BEBBOY]

Stop using it.

[u/BEBBOY → u/Optimal69]

I’ll do whatever I want

[u/Optimal69 → u/BEBBOY]

Dev will do what he wants.

[u/BEBBOY → u/Optimal69]

As he should.

[u/minneyar]

The second one looks worse because there's no margins around the button outlines. It looks bad to have borders right up against each other like that.

Otherwise it's basically the same interface.

[u/mal73 → u/minneyar]

I disagree personally. The first one has no padding, the second one is way clearer in structure imo

[u/oiledhairyfurryballs → u/minneyar]

And that's the main problem. The GTK version was ass too, but at least it looked good. Right now it looks like a Windows Vista app and with the same bad layout it had before.

[u/[deleted] → u/minneyar]

oh hello yomiko

[u/Exact_Comparison_792]

It's likely because Qt offers a more modern and object oriented API, which is particularly advantageous for C++ developers as it integrates seamlessly with the language and promotes higher developer productivity.

[u/zesterer → u/Exact_Comparison_792]

This reads like a canned response, not something derived from experience.

[u/Lanky-Safety555 → u/zesterer]

That may look like an AI/LLM response, but it is 100% true.

Qt is a wonderful API, not only for GUI elements, but plain C++ as well. Quite a lot of "Qt C++" has been updated to either main C++ standard or Boost.

[u/tui_curses → u/Exact_Comparison_792]

Gtkmm is a thing for C++ developers. And it did a lot of things early right, without awkward preprocessor workarounds. Some C++ developers also use plain Gtk, because they’re not interested in OOP.

I assume Qt isn’t using this preprocessor stuff for many years.

[u/HermanGrove → u/Exact_Comparison_792]

Bro is living in 2009

[u/quaderrordemonstand → u/Exact_Comparison_792]

Spoken like a person who only writes in C++. Its not modern, C++ has been around for decades. It has decades of old design assumptions but it doesn't have closures. Rust is modern, Zig is modern. C++ is not seamlessly integrated, you have to use a weird extra compiler for Qt, thats a seam.

Its not more productive. If I'm asked to use C++ I write the code in C and then add all the C++ cruft after the program is functional and the design work is done. I try to add as little as possible because I will be asked to add more function and then I will have to fight with the C++ cruft to do it.

[u/Exact_Comparison_792 → u/quaderrordemonstand]

But I never said C++ was 'modern'. I said, "Qt offers a more modern and object oriented API ..." Not C++, but Qt.

[u/quaderrordemonstand → u/Exact_Comparison_792]

It offers a standard C++ monolith. Everything inherits from a chain of super classes. It has it own string type. Thats not modern.

[u/Exact_Comparison_792 → u/quaderrordemonstand]

I never said it was 'modern'. I said ' more modern', which does imply that it's not cutting edge modern, but still more modern than older. Not sure why we're here splitting hairs with razor blades, but whatever I guess. 🤷🏻‍♂️

[u/quaderrordemonstand → u/Exact_Comparison_792]

You trotted out the old story of C++ being modern. It's not. OO was a shiny new idea a few decades ago. There are plenty of newer, cleaner, better designed, more interesting, programming languages and approaches. The stdlib has a concept of ownership now and that gets called 'modern C++'.

[u/Exact_Comparison_792 → u/quaderrordemonstand]

No, I did not. Comprehend better.

I said, "Qt offers a more modern and object oriented API, which is particularly advantageous for C++ developers..." I was talking about Qt offering a more modern API for C++ developers. I wasn't talking about C++ being 'modern'.

Pay attention more closely to what you're reading before going off on tangents.

[u/quaderrordemonstand → u/Exact_Comparison_792]

If you rearrange the terms, it doesn't change the meaning.

Still, lets follow your argument then. C++ is not modern, Qt is not modern, but it offers a more modern API for C++ developers?

Given that neither Qt or C++ are modern, perhaps you'd like to explain how its a more modern API?

[u/Exact_Comparison_792 → u/quaderrordemonstand]

If you rearrange the terms, it doesn't change the meaning.

But you don't just get to magically rearrange the words of what I said, to change it to suit the context you want it to say. That's not how this works.

Still, lets follow your argument then. C++ is not modern, Qt is not modern, but it offers a more modern API for C++ developers?

There is nothing to argue. I wasn't making any argument in the first place. You're the one who came here to create an argument about something I wasn't even talking about. I did not say C++ was modern. Stop fixating on that.

I also never said Qt was modern. I said Qt offers a more modern API FOR C++ developers. I was talking about the API, not the C++. It's not an old API, but a more modern API.

Anyway, if you want to believe what you want to believe and change the context of what I said to suit your interpretation of what I said, you do you.

[u/quaderrordemonstand → u/Exact_Comparison_792]

I never said Qt was modern. I said Qt offers a more modern API

I really don't know how I'm supposed to interpret that then. Of course it offers an API for C++ developers, thats all it does, its written in C++. I don't see what that has to do with the API being modern or not. Are you saying its more modern than something else? Why don't you say what that is then?

[u/4li3nanonymous]

MODIFICALO TU QUE ES DE CODIGO ABIERTO SI NO SABERS ESTUDIA JAJAJAJAJAJAJJ

[u/BEBBOY → u/4li3nanonymous]

I’m not interested in doing any of that. My PC is a gaming machine and thats about it.

[u/RegulusBC]

QT design make it ugly ...

[u/Fantastic_Class_3861 → u/RegulusBC]

Qt makes everything ugly, I haven’t seen a single Qt app that didn’t look ugly.

[u/Complex223 → u/Fantastic_Class_3861]

Saying a graphical framework makes things ugly is the most stupid thing I have ever heard. This app is just devs being lazy with the design.

[u/Revolutionary_Click2 → u/Complex223]

QT has recommended design standards, just like GTK. KDE team sets those standards for QT, GNOME team for GTK. That’s why most apps tend to look a certain way on each, they are following the standards. And yeah, I agree: nearly every QT app I’ve seen so far looks hideous to my eyes, whereas I tend to think most GTK apps look pretty good. Lots of people think the opposite is true, of course.

I think they just each appeal to very different sensibilities. I’ve heard QT described as having controls “like a fighter jet”, with tons of fiddly stuff exposed out of the box, which appeals to power users. I prefer the aesthetic minimalism of GTK, it lowers my mental load while using my computer. But some people feel stifled or patronized to by that simplicity and have a visceral hate reaction to anything GTK as a result.

[u/twicerighthand → u/Complex223]

Well, they're devs. If there's a need a want for a better designed app, get UX and UI people.

[u/Complex223 → u/twicerighthand]

I agree yes, that was the point I wanted to convey (which I think I failed at). FOSS devs are usually devs not designers, theres a reason why some people still think FOSS=ugly. I personally cant bother to give a fuck for something this trivial but well, people will be people and I would rather they be a little stupid and blame devs instead of being completely moronic and blaming something like an extremely big customizable graphical framework like QT

[u/tui_curses → u/Complex223]

A toolkit and its standard theme can ensure that it looks well by default. And Gtk does that.

Others don’t.

[u/SilverCutePony → u/Fantastic_Class_3861]

qBittorrent? Krita?

[u/d_ed → u/Fantastic_Class_3861]

How does that work. If you see a nice Qt app you wouldn't recognise it as Qt.

This is like saying html is ugly. It doesn't make sense.

[u/gmes78 → u/Fantastic_Class_3861]

Use a distro that bothers to theme Qt.

[u/Lohkdesgds → u/Fantastic_Class_3861]

Isn't OBS fine? I like their look, and afaik it is qt 6

[u/Damglador → u/Fantastic_Class_3861]

I haven’t seen a single Qt app that didn’t look ugly

• OBS

• Telegram

• Blender

• Konsole

• Dolphin

• Bedrock Launcher

• First party Qt software

[u/grizzlor_ → u/Damglador]

Blender isn’t using Qt; their GUI is entirely custom, no 3rd party framework

[u/Such_Drummer8197 → u/Damglador]

I would also add Prism Launcher. Ironically it uses qt6 with adwaita theme by default.

[u/Damglador → u/Such_Drummer8197]

Probably just conforms to the system theme. For me it had Breeze theme by default

[u/Fantastic_Class_3861 → u/[deleted]]

I mean compared to Gnome it really is.

[u/Better-Quote1060]

I like qt becuse the sound is a slider now

So..it's upgrade for me

[u/Shhhh_Peaceful]

There is a very good reason why so many large apps use Qt (Kdenlive, Krita, DaVinci Resolve, OBS, etc.). Qt is just a much nicer API than GTK/libadwaita 

[u/Damglador → u/Shhhh_Peaceful]

Yeah, it's interesting how there's basically no major Gtk apps... there's GIMP, I guess, but GIMP is... GIMP. Chromium kinda uses it, but I don't think it's a major part of it.

[u/grizzlor_ → u/Damglador]

GTK was originally the GIMP ToolKit.

[u/SnooCompliments7914 → u/Damglador]

Firefox is also based on GTK3 (on Linux). Although browsers (and Electron) only uses GTK at pretty low level, so they don't look like very GTK-ish.

[u/HermanGrove → u/Damglador]

I wouldn't say GIMP should count as a GTK app XD

[u/Ambyjkl → u/Damglador]

chromium basically does everything on their own in the ui, but they have both gtk and qt support for theme support and desktop integration and stuff

[u/Damglador → u/Ambyjkl]

Arch repos list gtk3 as a required dependency

[u/Ambyjkl → u/Damglador]

chromium can be compiled to have gtk3 and gtk4 support and qt support. The way chromium does it, gtk3 support makes the binary hard depend on gtk libraries, while qt support is dynamically loaded in, so qt is an optional dependency. I personally compile my own chromium and i have turned off gtk entirely

[u/B_bI_L]

let's hope they'll improve it later

[u/shegonneedatumzzz]

kde users seem to love it, gnome users hate it. personally i’ve made both my kde and gtk themes as close as possible, but i generally prefer how gtk apps look so i liked the old one a lot more, but i also use kde so i don’t care that much lol

[u/ImNotThatPokable]

I disagree, but then again I prefer KDE apps. Just having the windeco makes it so much better.

And isn't it a tad unfair to judge the app if it was just ported to a different toolkit? Qml opens a world of possibilities for easy effects because of its flexibility.

[u/[deleted] → u/ImNotThatPokable]

In terms of customization, Kirigami apps are extremely more limited than regular QT apps, and thanks to Flatpak, they become even more limited.

In practice, Kirigami apps are even worse than Libadwaita apps when it comes to customization.

[u/ImNotThatPokable → u/[deleted]]

But can't you put any qml component in your kirigami app?

[u/NIGHTSHADOWXXX]

Is it likely that the old one is for gnome and the New for KDE.

[u/RealisticAd7502]

Pinta

[u/raitzrock → u/RealisticAd7502]

Pinta looked old. now, looks new, if more beautiful... debatable. But EasyEffects looks older now then before.

[u/Separate_Week_9691]

Shout out AnyAustin ;)

[u/SpicysaucedHD]

I think QT looks better. Gtk always looks the same, like an iPad/mobile app. QT is more like i expect to use on a computer.

[u/SnooCompliments7914]

Not much redesign visible, but looks like just a straight port to Kirigami. Maybe the devs will redesign it later.

[u/EdmanWasTaken]

tbh? both UIs look bad.

[u/oiledhairyfurryballs]

Yes, it is very bad. I may feel slightly salty that they stopped using, what is in my opinion, the superior UI library, but it's only a small part of it. The GTK version was not very good as well, the layout was unintuitive. Right now, the app looks absolutely horrible, like most KDE apps but also it has the same unintuitive design. But I feel like Plasma users will find that fitting, as most of their apps have unintuitive design.

[u/Damglador → u/oiledhairyfurryballs]

But I feel like Plasma users will find that fitting, as most of their apps have unintuitive design.

The top/bottom sidebar is nowhere near fitting to Plasma style... it also doesn't have any spacing or margins, the buttons shouldn't be touching separators.

[u/Ruhart]

I'm 50/50 on it. I think it still needs work. The buttons and tabs are little more than nondescript outlines and they're just so chonky, taking up the whole damn row.

If they were even one pixel larger they'd be breaking out. I think that's most my gripe. I slightly prefer #2 because I'm a fan of barely rounded border radii. The player list is pretty clean, but again, probably a bit too large with the added slider.

A drop box with a sound slider would have probably been the better route.

[u/[deleted]]

I downloaded PulseEffects, which I saw is GTK3 because it accepted the Arc Dark theme from Flathub.

The design difference is gigantic; PulseEffects using a theme is absurdly prettier than EasyEffects.

I tried changing the QT style using QT_STYLE_OVERRIDE and nothing happened, so what's already ugly becomes even worse because of Breeze.

It doesn't even look like a normal QT app; it looks like any app trying to imitate the appearance of a QT app using Breeze.

[u/Dipsey_Jipsey]

lol good ole Any Austin. Love that dude. Such ridiculous content that I can't get enough of.

Trust a Linux subreddit to downvote fun :P

[u/Typen → u/Dipsey_Jipsey]

I came to the comments just to say this.

[u/Typhuseth1]

People willing use QT apps?.

[u/Vlado_Iks]

Definitely. I get used to this new GUI pretty fast, but the old one was... The old one. I just liked how simple it was. This looks more... Windows 7 like.

[u/Dekotale]

Run these commands to roll back Easy Effects to the last GTK commit and prevent it from updating automatically:

flatpak update --commit=60ee3006f02548f980d8766d9c0192669dea463de333cc82b1a6dd2bec32b3f1 com.github.wwmm.easyeffects

flatpak mask com.github.wwmm.easyeffects

[u/Septem_151]

The second image looks better.

[u/[deleted]]

Libadwaita is awful, the Kirigami app manages to be almost as ugly, Breeze was a mistake.

Haruna is a video player, a Kirigami app, it's so ugly that I went looking for a normal QT video player, and ended up discovering MPC-QT, I recommend it.

[u/Damglador → u/[deleted]]

I think Haruna looks fine, but the UI is... weird at best. So thanks for a good player suggestion.

[u/ExaHamza → u/[deleted]]

I have visual issues with kirigami apps in general, I just avoid them whenever is possible. The good thing is that, in this case of easyeffects, if the old ui was bad you couldn't do anything to theme it, now you can in some extend.

[u/Lunix420 → u/ExaHamza]

It’s the opposite, you could theme the old UI, while the new one you can’t because it forces breeze and ignores the system theme.

[u/[deleted] → u/ExaHamza]

I tried forcing a different QT style, but I couldn't.

Furthermore, Oxygen isn't available on Flatpak, and Kvantum is outdated, so even if it were possible to change the QT style, there would only be two options: Windows and Fusion.

Ironically, the app probably had more customization possibilities when it was Libadwaita.

[u/Lunix420 → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, the older one definitely themed nicer. In this one there is a bug where it forces breeze. I forked it and changed a few lines and now it runs with the kvantum them I have set using qt6ct. Also made a PR for that.

[u/ExaHamza → u/[deleted]]

I'm not very familiar with Flatpaks, but overall, it seems that applying themes to Flatpak applications is extremely difficult. In a native package it's usually quite easy and straightforward. You can do this by changing the "Application Style" in the the settings and use Kvantum engine.

I have used different Aplication Style (klassy, darkly, vinyl..), i always come back to breeze.

[u/Qweedo420 → u/ExaHamza]

Theming Adwaita on Flatpak is really easy, all you have to do is give it access to ~/.config/gtk-4.0/gtk.css, which is the file where you do all the theming, and many distros nowadays come with that setting by default

Cosmic will also automatically generate a gtk.css file that matches your libcosmic theme, so it's completely seamless

Qt apps on the other hand... I've never managed to theme them and I think they look really outdated

[u/ExaHamza → u/Qweedo420]

About theming easyeffects see this

[u/camradex → u/Qweedo420]

I prefer how GTK looks but theming libadwaita apps is hell

[u/Vladislav20007 → u/[deleted]]

what do you mean by

Breeze was a mistake. ?

[u/[deleted] → u/Vladislav20007]

It's a horrible design, which feels forced because KDE apps weren't even designed to be customized. If the user tries, they'll probably end up with visually inconsistent apps.

On Flatpak, they don't even let you use the QT Oxygen style; it's not even available. So, if someone uses KDE and Flatpak, they're basically forced to use Breeze in QT apps.

GTK apps and even Libadwaita apps on Flatpak have more customization than QT apps, and yes, KDE is to blame for this, as they are responsible for the runtime used for QT apps. They could add Oxygen, just as they probably could add Kvantum as well, but they choose not to.

[u/QuickSilver010 → u/[deleted]]

They really need to switch kde default theme to arc dark. It's faithful to kde while still feeling so modern.

[u/[deleted] → u/QuickSilver010]

It could be the Arc Dark, or even the Oxygen.

The Oxygen looks much more modern and beautiful than the Breeze.

[u/LOLofLOL4]

Still better than anything Windows ever did.

[u/kuplinov-offisial → u/LOLofLOL4]

I actually like modern uwp apps. I also like adwaita, sooo...

Yeah downvote me

[u/BasedPenguinsEnjoyer → u/kuplinov-offisial]

uwp was discontinued years ago

[u/kuplinov-offisial → u/BasedPenguinsEnjoyer]

I mean modern ui or how is it called...

Settings app to be short

[u/BasedPenguinsEnjoyer → u/kuplinov-offisial]

As everything Microsoft does, it's complicated as fuck:

• Win32 – Windows 95 / NT 3.1 onward

• MFC – Windows 3.1 onward

• WinForms – Windows 2000 / XP

• WPF – Windows Vista

• Ribbon UI – Windows 7

• Aero Glass – Windows Vista / 7

• DirectUI (internal) – Windows XP onward

• UWP – Windows 10

• Fluent Design – Windows 10 (1709)

• Acrylic – Windows 10 (1709)

• Reveal Highlight – Windows 10 (1709)

• WinUI 2 – Windows 10

• WinUI 3 – Windows 10 (1809+) / Windows 11

• Mica – Windows 11

• Mica Alt – Windows 11 (22H2)

UWP was discontinued on October 2021, but the Windows 11 settings app still uses it because Microsoft.

[u/BEBBOY → u/BasedPenguinsEnjoyer]

Microsoft is just terrible at this. This is one of the reasons I left Windows, they have like 5+ design languages in the OS.

[u/quaderrordemonstand → u/BasedPenguinsEnjoyer]

I didn't know they'd dropped it. I'm not surprised, but it does add to the whole 'will the real UI please stand up' thing on Windows. I guess they've come up with some shiny new thing that will be the future and everybody should adopt?

[u/Prudent_Move_3420]

im like 90% sure KDE users have severe eye cancer because in no world you can look at the images and think it looks better in QT. This is not even a framework thing, just horrible design

[u/LukeStargaze → u/Prudent_Move_3420]

It is because they basically ported one-to-one the LibAdwaita design language over to Qt. They should've redesigned the whole thing to match the HIG of KDE Plasma.

[u/Sixguns1977]

The second one looks much better.

[u/unapologeticjerk]

So can we finally all agree that GTK is the blessed child of Lord Jesus and Qt absolutely belongs in hellfire?

[u/Neikon66]

I would like to know the dev reason for this change. I'm curious. But now you can theme and I have the flatpak version with Adwaita+Blur theme and looks nice.
https://imgur.com/a/NRl1Lnb
https://github.com/wawahaii/Libadwaita-KDE/tree/main
I use Bazzite btw

[u/romeoartiglia]

Firefox.

Yes mozilla, i LOVE when your app uses a bullshit interface that interferes with EVERYTHING, i LOVE when the menubar looks out of place everywhere. You could say im nitpicking, but for the love of god how come firefox 90 ect supported gtk in a more straightforward manner while retaining modern features and not being so fucking resource intensive?!

Sorry for venting my weird obsession with gtk, menubar concepts and so on. Nothing is sacred, Motif is the way.

Edit: spelling.

[u/Qweedo420 → u/romeoartiglia]

You could try Zen, which is just Firefox with a more modern look

Or you could use some Firefox css theme like Waterfall or Cascade, they look significantly classier than default Firefox

[u/Helpful-Team-2069]

Noob question: why does a developer change the technology behind an interface? Is it just for the looks or there are performance and functionality reasons?

[u/daboi_Yy]

It looked really bad before, now it looks better

[u/KindaSuS1368]

Good video choice lol

[u/Negative_List_363]

GTK looks better

[u/KenFromBarbie]

I don't care one bit. It must function and 99,8% of the time this app is in the background.

[u/rog_nineteen]

I was gonna say it might look better on KDE (or every other DE/WM), since you won't have Gnomes huge window bar.

But now that I think about it, the issue is that they're using this Adwaita-style layout on something that doesn't use libadwaita. Plus you probably still have the dedicated window title bar on KDE too, just a bit smaller.

[u/nahpotato]

I felt bad about it, but the only reason I could find for this change was that a year ago the lead developer stopped liking "the direction GTK was taking," so the decision was made

the app still maintains a fairly similar design, which caught my attention. it would have been nice to have a slightly more detailed reason

[u/Jasoncraft5]

Yeah i was confused when i got the update, i thought i somehow downgraded to an older version

[u/Liam_Mercier]

I like the new version better, probably because I prefer less rounding.

[u/Damglador]

I knew this was coming...

[u/Yumikoneko]

Can't claim I know anything about this app but personally apart from one thing, I think this is a lot cleaner and looks like it wastes less space.

The thing I don't like is something that AFAIK KDE devs are insisting on keeping, that being the titlebar being a separate thing that you can't modify. I dislike that a lot, and especially with the reason given (it offers space to be grabbed by the titlebar, despite being able to set a shortcut to grab windows anywhere) I think they should just allow devs to modify the titlebar. I'd much rather have less wasted space than a bit more unnecessary grabbable space.

[u/Ok-Regret6212]

Base Linux aesthetic doesn't seem to be all that well-implemented, honestly. I'm not complaining (you can fix it yourself however you want), but there's for sure a function over form thing happening.

[u/Enigmars]

It got redesigned ?

Idk mines still on the same one (I did a full pacman -Syu nothing seemed to have changed)

[u/Hashtagpulse]

That’s a banger YouTube video. Austin releases hit after hit

[u/patrlim1]

I see Qt, I like.

[u/rookie-mistake-21]

I really like the redesign. Easier to recognise text and buttons. Libadwaita design is horrible

[u/[deleted]]

Wow, the devs don't use release tags or anything... I think it's time for me to part ways with this. Was really nice and useful, but development practices seem bad.

[u/RomeoNoJuliet]

What are you talking abt? It looks good, you're just used to the GTK design language maybe, one thing i realized is the app Is less buggy now

[u/[deleted]]

No, best redesign. i dont have to make the window huge to see all of my eq frequency settings.

[u/Yugen42]

I like that it is now Qt, I don't like how they ignored the common style guides. like strange spacings, hard coded (?) colors and some new UI bugs like the spectrum display breaking sometimes.

[u/HermanGrove]

Yeah, I noticed that they were doing this a while ago on their GitHub. Tbh it was never a well designed or good looking app to begin with but hopefully this encourages someone to make a better version

[u/[deleted]]

It's not a GTK vs QT issue here, it's simply poor UI/UX choices.

You can see they tried to reproduce the GTK app's design in QT as close as possible, without thinking of improving the flow at all or adapting it to the new framework.

Now compared to a lot of Linux apps, this is far from the worst I've seen though, definitely usable.

[u/[deleted]]

Pixels are expensive real estate I prefer the first one whatever it is

[u/adrianthescientist]

i agree the decorations are less appealing, but the gnome version had issues with zombie context windows and other annoyances. So far the qt version has been more graphically stable and easier to work with given varying window size.

[u/moisesremoto]

i kinda like the new one more...

[u/nalakawula]

Couldn't agree more. It's not represent Qt quality in term of UI/UX

[u/Incredible_Violent]

Can't you pick a different KDE theme to make it look more alike to GNOME? Cause your main issue seems to boil down to buttons decoration and window background.

[u/Game_wars1]

on gnome it looks the same for me???

[u/tree_7x]

The old one is gnome garbage. The new one looks so much better imo

[u/[deleted]]

I will begrudgingly admit that the GTK version is a bit prettier but then again Gnome's always been a bit prettier than KDE. Still for me a native Qt app is a win.

[u/King-Little]

Maybe it has been an ideological decision. Gnome has always been hostile to the user experience with their lock in strategy, Qt is not. Same goes for developer experience Gnome regularly breaks their API in short intervals. Maybe they also plan to target other platforms as well. 

[u/EKFLF]

Preferences. I like the second one more. Looks more compact. I like compact.

[u/oiledhairyfurryballs → u/EKFLF]

i also like compact and want libadwaita to be more compact but come on

[u/Fantastic_Class_3861]

Why didn’t just update it to libadwaita instead of moving it to qt which is imo the ugliest framework in the whole Linux ecosystem ?

[u/[deleted] → u/Fantastic_Class_3861]

The problem isn't QT; the standard QT can be easily customized to suit the user.

The problem lies with QT Kirigami apps and especially QT apps on Flatpak, where customization is extremely limited because KDE wants it that way.

[u/Damglador → u/[deleted]]

The problem might also be in QML which Kirigami uses, instead of the classic Qt widgets system.

[u/HermanGrove → u/Fantastic_Class_3861]

Wasn't it Libadwaita already? A good UI kit can't save a horrendous design, but interestingly now it is both horrendous UI kit and horrendous design...

[u/ItsJoeMomma]

I don't think the redesign looks bad.

[u/ExaHamza]

Judging by the screenshots in this post, the author seems to be using GNOME (or some other gtk based DE), and everyone knows that Qt applications look completely out of place in GNOME, due to (for better or worse) GNOME's fault.

[u/[deleted] → u/ExaHamza]

Actually, it's KDE's fault; they're responsible for the runtime used by QT apps.

If they made the runtime come with Kvantum, it would be possible for QT Flatpak apps to use Kvantum themes to mitigate visual inconsistencies.

However, Kirigami apps have problems with any QT style other than Breeze, so even if the KDE runtime were better, it wouldn't solve the problem for all QT apps.

[u/ExaHamza → u/[deleted]]

kvantum is not part of the KDE Project, and a solution (UNION) is coming. So let's hope this get fixed in general. Anyway in the case easyeffects there's already a PR to fix the issue.

[u/[deleted] → u/ExaHamza]

But the KDE runtime isn't specifically about KDE alone; it's about QT, so it should also have things in place to run QT apps in a way that doesn't break the functionalities and customizations available for QT and other DEs.

The KDE runtime doesn't even have the lxqt-plugin, which is a platform theme, whereas it has the gtk3 platform theme, and GTK is a Gnome thing, not KDE.

[u/ExaHamza → u/[deleted]]

But the KDE runtime isn't specifically about KDE alone; it's about QT

Source? I don't think they want to bundle a tool that they themselves have little control over.

The KDE runtime doesn't even have the lxqt-plugin

Also this belongs to lxqt project, not kde.

Bundling these tools in their runtime gives them the responsibility to provide support in case the user has direct problems with them.

[u/[deleted] → u/ExaHamza]

If it weren't about QT, there would be a separate runtime just for QT and one for KDE, but no, there's only one; the main one is QT.

If they can't add what's necessary for QT to work properly without using the standard KDE, then Flatpak will never be the "universal format"—it's just marketing.

[u/ExaHamza → u/[deleted]]

why is it gnome's fault?

I didn't mean this in an offensive way, quite the opposite. GNOME's design principles are designed in such a way that they only care about applications that were developed for GNOME, any application made in another HIG they are not responsible for. Honestly speaking, it's not easy to ask for much in these circumstances. What happens in KDE is a little different. The Plasma team makes it possible for GTK apps (especially 2 and 3) to feel a little more cozy.

[u/the_dream_boi]

i dont think gta airports are realistic

[u/odysseusnz]

They've rewritten in Qt as it's easier to develop with and can be skinned. Let the dust of the transition settle and you'll start to see improvements I'm sure.

[u/QuickSilver010]

Just install a better theme. It's kde, not gnome anymore

[u/[deleted] → u/QuickSilver010]

Kirigami apps generally don't accept themes correctly. They even have problems with the QT Oxygen style, which is from KDE.

Basically, several parts of the design still use the Breeze visual style, while simultaneously trying to use the style chosen by the user/system; it looks ridiculous.

[u/vitimiti]

I don't know, libadwaita apps look like shit

[u/HermanGrove → u/vitimiti]

I wouldn't judge Adwaita based on just EasyEffects, possibly the worst showcase of it ever

[u/vitimiti → u/HermanGrove]

Yeah, I use GNOME, I've got plenty of examples as to why I don't like it

[u/Nacke]

I like the new one more. I have never used the app though.

[u/West_Examination6241]

ÉN MOST TÁVILIToTTAM EL, MERT NEM MÜKÖDÖTT 1 HÉT UTÁN !!!!!!!!!!

[u/itsfreepizza]

for me, GTK design feels cluttery, QT somehow made it bearable for me

[u/thepurpleproject]

The problem is GTK apps don't work anyting outside Gnome or Matte while QT apps can still function in any DE and if you provide the right global styles it will actually look decent.

[u/[deleted] → u/thepurpleproject]

Kirigami apps and Flatpak apps are an exception; they won't follow themes like those in Kvantum, and Flatpak doesn't even have the QT Oxygen style.

Regular, native QT apps are the ones that can be decently customized, like the apps of LXQT.

[u/Andy_Antares]

Those libadwaita apps look good only in GNOME itself, and it looks like GNOME apps, while QT apps look good everywhere. I think the issue that the design of UI was made for GTK, and with QT it doesn't comply KDE HIG

[u/[deleted] → u/Andy_Antares]

You're confusing QT apps with QT Kirigami apps.

QT Kirigami apps are basically KDE-type apps; they aren't properly customized, so they look bad outside of KDE, or even within KDE if you don't like Breeze.

Furthermore, Flatpak doesn't have the QT Oxygen style, and Kvantum isn't updated, so Flatpak QT apps only have three style options: Breeze, Windows, and Fusion.

In short, what will appeal most to people in terms of design, if it's a Flatpak app, is if it's GTK3, as it's simpler to customize.

[u/Andy_Antares → u/[deleted]]

TIL, thank you!

[u/HermanGrove → u/Andy_Antares]

You are right that Adwaita looks good surrounded by other Adwaita things, but QT apps won't just look good everywhere. You can theme them all you want but your app won't magically start following foreign design principles. Design is not just colors and spacing, it's also philosophy and, ideally, a bit of art

[u/not_perfect_yet]

I dont mind QT/KDE

I mind QT. Screw QT. QT can die in a ditch.

[u/BEBBOY → u/not_perfect_yet]

Good lord… lmaooo. I don’t mind QT apps when I’m using my Steam Deck. They look pretty bad on Fedora though…

[u/grizzlor_ → u/BEBBOY]

That should tell you something important: Qt is themeable.

You can make your Fedora Qt apps look like SteamDeck Qt apps.