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Which distros are visually and/or have user interfaces/experiential sensibillities/idioms akin to Windows/MacOS/("pure") Linux as distinct from the other 2 major OSs? (lemmy.world)
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by to c/linux@lemmy.ml
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I realize this is impressionistic but for the sake of the conceit:

"Mac" flavored (PopOS, ZorinOS?)

"Windows" flavored (Mint?)

"Linux" flavored (Fedora?)

Edit: was not aware 1) Distro & 2) Desktop Environment are seperate/distinct. Good to learn

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[–] 15 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 child)

This is a question about desktop environments not distros. Many distros ship a default desktop environment but you can always change it. Among the desktop environments it’s typically said:

Gnome ~ Mac, KDE ~ Windows

As for a Linux flavored one I think the most distinctly linux desktops are the tiling and scrolling compositors (hyprland, niri etc)

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 4 days ago* (3 children)

    • So Gnome is the distro?

    • what do you mean by ~ Mac ~ Windows (both? They're both the desktop environment?)

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  • [–] 6 points 4 days ago

    No Gnome is a desktop environment which is similar to the Mac desktop environment. Ditto KDE and windows.

    This distinction is confusing for new Linux users because windows and Mac each only provide one desktop environment so users conflate the desktop and OS. Imagine if you could change your computer from having a windows desktop to a Mac desktop while having all your files and applications stay exactly the same and still work. This is how Linux works. Whether you use Gnome (a Mac like interface) or KDE (a windows like interface) or one of the tiling/scrolling compositors of Linux power users it’s just the UI layer of the OS, it’s a totally independent question from what distro/software you’re running and you can freely mix and match

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  • [–] 3 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    Like a super theme. Makes the entire interface entirely different, even comes with different default apps, like the default calculator is different too.

    If you've ever used Android phones, you might've seen launcher apps on the play store. Something like that.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 4 days ago* (1 child)

    I feel like I never grasped or encountered the concept of a launcher, I know Apple things dont really have the same concept AFAIK

    What is the interplay between the ~Mac ~ Windows

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  • [–] 4 points 4 days ago*

    Well yeah. Just imagine linux being just the command line, then you gotta build a whole graphics layer on top of it. Windows and Mac built them as one combined unit. Linux being Linux, obviously different people have made their own versions for people to download for free.

    So everything visually above is mostly down to the choice of DE, while the technical command line stuff underneath like the drivers and stuff are the distro.

    People usually just refer to each DE by their main stylistic inspiration. E.g. KDE is more windows inspired with the start button at the bottom, while GNOME is more mac-ish looking. Neither are copies of course, and there are tons of DEs that are uniquely designed by random people with crazy ideas.

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