At the risk of being horribly down-voted, I'm going to say that I'd like it to "not look like crap". Unfair with no information, so here's some (of opinion form).
If I look at the screenshots for 10.10 (let's take a tiny example, I could pick on many - http://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sshot23....), the general quality of finish on UI chrome and layout is shocking. The inconsistencies, poor spacing, bad grid, etc. make this jarring and painful. I'm sure people will say this is irrelevant. It isn't. If you're staring at something for many hours a day, this stuff is your subconscious indicator as to quality. It doesn't feel "right". Most Linux user interfaces (and this isn't Ubuntu specific, but you guys are probably most likely to have a go at fixing it) feel "uncanny". They're just a bit wrong. Things don't line up, they're odd sizes, they draw the eye in the wrong way.
In short, they're inelegant and clunky. They feel like non-native Java app interfaces (used) to do (and still do, to greater or lesser degrees). This isn't about visual style or theme, it's a quality case not a taste one.
If I had a little more time (or if anyone thinks this is unfair and actually wants it) I could annotate a screenshot and point these things out directly.
(Please note - if you feel that this is all fixed in 11.x then I apologise, but I will be very surprised)
// Edit: If anyone from Ubuntu would like to chat ever, I'd be more than happy. Contact info is in my profile.
I completely agree. I regularly use Ubuntu for programming. I used to use it as my sole OS. There was a time when I actually thought it looked kind of pretty--compared to Windows XP. Even today, the general theme is not too bad and there actually are some pretty nice applications out there. But the vast majority of applications, widgets etc. is unbearably ugly. List views not fitting in windows. Controls crammed together way to tightly. Controls spaced differently in every application. No consistency in spacing or layout across applications.
Hence, my use of Ubuntu is pretty much limited to Vim and a terminal window. And I love Ubuntu for that. But I would use it for more than that if it wasn't for its ugliness.
How about reading the UI guidelines of Windows and OSX and coming up with one of your own? I know this exists for Gnome somewhere, but I can't see many developers adhering to them…
I run Ubuntu 10.10 and I think that this isn't just an issue with the UI, but tiny little things are just... wrong. For example, shuffle in Rhythmbox ends up playing 2 or 3 music files again and again and things like changing the song's metadata keeps on cropping up weird issues (names get truncated; changes get rolled back after I quit rhythmbox)
There are also other tiny bugs that annoy me everyday. Things like giving decent video output through the VGA port on a supported Acer netbook just don't work. For example, I was giving a presentation and ubuntu would randomly decide between slides to switch over displays, blank it, show output errors etc.
I think that these problems aren't allocated resources, because they appear to be just trivial, but as a user this is what I'm going to notice after a month or a year of usage. These are the tiny things that drive people up the wall. For example, the infamous windows file copying dialogue. Not a biggie, but it evokes a collective sigh no matter where you mention it.
At the same time this release is much, much better than the 8.04 and it just shows how much effort canonical puts into iterative improvement. If the same attention is thrown to these strawmen. Then ubuntu might become a force to reckon with.
I'm very pleased with the overall looks of Ubuntu :). I guess spacing etc. is actually a very hard problem, because it has to work in so many languages.
Moreover, most of the software is not developed by Canonical. It's just packaged by them. I doubt they can influence the looks of individual programs that much (there are just so many and everyone uses different ones).
That's a fair point, I will concede that it's difficult. But a lot of the core things like the file manager (and certainly Unity) is within their control, and could be a lot better. I think that much more could also be done from a technical and cultural leadership perspective in this area. I would dearly love to chat with anyone from Ubuntu about this if they wanted to listen. I'm not a designer (not anymore) I'm a software developer (generally), but I still think that there's an opportunity for huge improvement even with the challenges you (correctly) point out.
Same here. Perhaps I'm not as sensitive to most regarding spacing, etc, or perhaps I'm just not sophisticated enough to recognize the shortcomings, but my Ubuntu desktop experience is just fine, and seems to improve with every release.
I agree... there's a jarring effect everytime I run Gnome. Especially due to the fonts and the excessive spacing(on things like buttons) around text.. feeling like a lot of screen space wasted without gaining anything in return.
The fonts seem stretched horizontally. I always get the feeling, even in the new versions. Maybe it's just me. As a sidenote see how the column headings are cut off in the Deluge windows.
I was told a few years ago that this was because of patents on TrueType fonts etc and copyrighted fonts. Is this still the case?
That entire thing just looks woeful to me. The fonts, the soulless icons, the striking horizontal lines everywhere, the way the File Browser is swimming in empty space yet the icons and search field at the top of the screen are jammed in and scraping the edges.
"What on earth are you talking about? That looks fine" is a valid reply to my finickiness, and I'm a bit jealous of that, because being like this pretty much limits me to OS X and Apple's whims.
If I look at the screenshots for 10.10 (let's take a tiny example, I could pick on many - http://www.howtogeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/sshot23....), the general quality of finish on UI chrome and layout is shocking. The inconsistencies, poor spacing, bad grid, etc. make this jarring and painful. I'm sure people will say this is irrelevant. It isn't. If you're staring at something for many hours a day, this stuff is your subconscious indicator as to quality. It doesn't feel "right". Most Linux user interfaces (and this isn't Ubuntu specific, but you guys are probably most likely to have a go at fixing it) feel "uncanny". They're just a bit wrong. Things don't line up, they're odd sizes, they draw the eye in the wrong way.
In short, they're inelegant and clunky. They feel like non-native Java app interfaces (used) to do (and still do, to greater or lesser degrees). This isn't about visual style or theme, it's a quality case not a taste one.
If I had a little more time (or if anyone thinks this is unfair and actually wants it) I could annotate a screenshot and point these things out directly.
(Please note - if you feel that this is all fixed in 11.x then I apologise, but I will be very surprised)
// Edit: If anyone from Ubuntu would like to chat ever, I'd be more than happy. Contact info is in my profile.