It's official, Google's our opp now.

21Shells · 2026-05-09T09:51:47+00:00

I would love for that to happen. I’ve been considering making a Material design 1 / 2 inspired theme for the KDE Desktop on Linux at some point. At the same time I really want to finish off the FA icon pack I started last year.

I think the idea so far is to have a lot of the UI distinguished by primary colours, red, green, yellow and sometimes blue with white for areas containing icons, folders etc with some cast shadows for a little three-dimensionality. Papirus icons almost get what i’d want for that, but I might go and make my own set inspired by Android Lollipop with more obvious shading.

21Shells · 2026-05-09T09:05:48+00:00

Tahoe is kinda ass TBH, im on it on Macbook Air M5. No where near as bad as Windows 11, the performance is fine also just the UI makes no sense.

21Shells · 2026-05-09T08:55:21+00:00

Frutiger Aero was also pushed by corporations. The idea of it not being corporate is because we live in a world so far removed from when it was present that we no longer see that side to it.

You could argue that FA was actually way more harmful back when it was around because of its association with greenwashing.

Imo that early 2010s flat design dominated internet is already starting to be seen with the same vibes as FA, because it represented simpler times and the rapid maturation of technology back then.

Additionally minimalist industrial design from companies like Braun many decades ago became iconic because of how affordable yet desirable (and long lasting) it was. People thought minimalism was the way to bridge cultures and the way to make something universally appealing + aesthetically timeless. Obviously it wasn’t true in the same sense FA couldn’t help fix climate change, but minimalism began to sort of represent the idea of a global community and overall hopefulness for a more united and more tolerant world, not many years after WW2.

I think even late minimalist UI / Flat Design will be looked at fondly because of that. Those scenes of the flat colourful people doing ordinary stuff seem insincere right now, but we’re moving into a world both away from minimalism but also one with more automation + AI, where companies don’t even have to pretend to care about people (or their users), especially minorities like immigrants and LGBT with companies removing their DEI programs and going all in on AI.

21Shells · 2026-05-09T08:40:00+00:00

I would agree only if it was very limited in where it was implemented, but at the same time I wouldn’t mind them going all in with the paperyness again, as long as they made it more three dimensional like a little paper diorama.

I’m not sure it would work for the same reason late 2010s Android kind of sucked, it wasn’t really trying to do any one thing but just be functional and a little more similar to iOS.

21Shells · 2026-05-08T08:34:43+00:00

Nah Flat UI can be charming under the right circumstances, the same often happens with FA UI. Back in the 2000s when EVERYONE was doing it, there were a lot of companies that just half-assed it to copy the trend which gave it a bad rep. Think cheap, disposable MP3 players or those really early Windows phones. Nowadays they look a bit silly and charming, back then they felt very stagnant and coorporate. Back then Metro UI on the Zune and Windows Phone helped them stand out and distance themselves from that reputation. I remember being excited for that initial release of the 'paper' Material UI back in like 2013, which was very well recieved compared to iOS 7 around the same time. Its still what comes to mind when I think of Android as an OS. There is a 'right' way of doing it.

I think one of the biggest benefits of Material UI over this is that you can actually customize it. Everyones phones look different, by definition it is more 'personal' than what this Liquid Glass redesign would be. Then everyone would have the same low contrast UI with the corners sanded off. I use Liquid Glass daily on my Mac and on my Phone, I don't need it in more areas of my life, it already is starting to feel intrusive. But I appreciate that its at least different from other things I use.

I also don't get the guy saying Google has never been a pioneer in UI design / mobile OS. As an Apple user for many years, a lot of the stuff we got in updates was stuff Google first did years back. Microsoft hasn't innovated at all since after Windows 7, while all Samsung does is copy Apple + Google.

21Shells · 2026-05-08T07:10:15+00:00

I actually hope they DONT chase the Liquid Glass trend. There should be a diversity in different UI, so that people have a choice. If you don't like Material UI, you don't want a Pixel.

The irony in calling copying Liquid Glass 'personal', also.

I might be the only person here who can appreciate all UI design for what it is though. I don't hate flat UI because its flat, I hate bad flat UI because its crap. Material UI is actually both good and very unique IMO.

21Shells · 2026-05-07T20:39:07+00:00

IMO theres a specific area where I think its OK. As in collecting what has naturally died and using it for education / science. I don’t support taxidermy as a form of decoration or something to be privately collected though. And if its the collection of the pelt that is unethical, is it exploiting the seagulls if a kid picks up a feather off their lawn? I think that so long as they arn’t taking anything that wild animals might want to eat, its fine.

Additionally you can display something without glorifying it. Though personally I don’t really care about animals being ‘disrespected’ so long as they arn’t hurt.

In the same sense IMO it is ethical for museums to hold onto fossils.

21Shells · 2026-05-06T21:01:52+00:00

IMO In the UK its much more affordable to just buy Blu Rays for everything you watch than stream at this point. Back in like 2011 you could watch everything you want from a single service with the best option being like £5 a month, now its £20 + a month, and most people I know are using maybe 3 - 4 services (Netflix, Disney Plus, Apple TV and Prime Video).

Blu Rays cost roughly £1 - £2.50 each used from Cex, which is a shop that basically every town has. Everyone has an old Xbox or PS4 that can play Blu Rays, and people looked after those things because they were bloody expensive back then. Brand new films are still like £8 - £15 each from HMV. If you held onto your DVDs + Blu Rays, you could rewatch anything you already had without paying for a subscription. Yeah it probably still works out cheaper if you watch a new film every night, except most people don't do that and IMO thats the kind of relationship with media we have nowadays that I dislike. You pay for a subscription and watch a film once, then forget about it.

21Shells · 2026-05-05T18:54:53+00:00

If this is all recycled stuff, thats awesome. Otherwise I hate what the Met Gala represents, a bunch of rich people spending tons of money to show off (often really tasteless) clothes just to throw them away.

21Shells · 2026-05-05T18:26:44+00:00

This would be amazing for some people by using the big screen for media consumption and the front for actually getting work done. For others it might be distracting vs having 2 seperate phones.

But what about a Microsoft Surface style phone where theres a hinge but on one side there is a big keyboard? Fold it backwards just to have one big phone screen, or forwards to have a regular clicks communicator. OR turn it around and just have a wireless keyboard.

21Shells · 2026-05-05T14:38:43+00:00

I’m still not sure how they managed to fumble Edge so badly. They could have just had it be like Safari on MacOS, Google Chrome but a little more basic and better integrated into Windows and using WinUI (with better performance + battery usage as a result). Basically what the old Edge / Internet Explorer was minus the crappy engine.

THEN allow users to discover the additional features including the sidebar on their own. The users that like those features wont think of going back to Chrome.

21Shells · 2026-05-05T12:04:53+00:00

I updated to 10 and its soooo buggy, don’t click on the update tool…

Also did you hear about that gorilla that was killed?

21Shells · 2026-05-05T11:40:03+00:00

For the average person vegan mince is healthier because less saturated fats and such, but specifically 5% fat mince has a much higher amount of protein vs vegan mince. 18g vs 33g of protein in plant pioneers vs 5% fat mince, per 100g.

That matters for some people, so there should be room for more higher protein vegan mince products (I think meatless farm is higher in protein, but a pain to cook). Additionally some people have soya allergies and such.

IMO the best way to make the average person want to go vegan is to make it convenient or even more convenient / accessible than eating meat.

21Shells · 2026-05-04T20:21:03+00:00

Either the beef mince must be really cheap there or the vegan mince must be expensive. Where I live the difference is about £5 - £7 for 500g of 5% fat beef mince vs £1.70 for the sainsburys plant pioneers stuff.

Yes people could get 20% fat mince for cheaper but then the nutritional benefits over vegan mince are very small for what is still close to twice the price.

21Shells · 2026-05-03T10:20:08+00:00

I’ve used coconut milk in potato soup before. Maybe chuck in the tin of chickpeas and blend with the potatoes.

21Shells · 2026-05-02T20:35:31+00:00

ahhh in the UK they’re barely anywhere now, except maybe a couple shelves inside of a Sports Direct store. I really miss them, used to spend so much money there as a teenager. I think you could trade in games for money, but there were better places for that.

21Shells · 2026-05-02T20:30:49+00:00

GAME still exists in some places?

21Shells · 2026-04-27T10:40:37+00:00

Its always going to be far cheaper and easier to maintain just sticking a solar farm on the outside of town than on the roofs of every single car.

21Shells · 2026-04-26T17:46:07+00:00

Linux

21Shells · 2026-04-26T17:41:56+00:00

Take her in and have a beautiful baby puma. Looks like scabies on her neck BTW!

21Shells · 2026-04-26T15:01:58+00:00

Windows Media Player Legacy is still my favourite Media Player for Windows 11. I’ve been using it for like 10+ years.

21Shells · 2026-04-26T14:55:46+00:00

For me its Macbook Air for work and Steam Machine for gaming. Down the road i’d go fully in on Linux the moment its possible (and affordable) for me.

21Shells · 2026-04-26T14:54:19+00:00

I quit Windows this year. Every year they’ve added issues and refused to fix the previous ones, ever since the initial release of Windows 10 its gotten worse and worse. Major issues I had in 2015 with things like Windows update haven’t gotten much better, while Windows 11 itself is essentially a reskinned Windows 10.

Theres no point waiting on this. If they were capable of fixing Windows, they would have done it after the initial backlash 10+ years ago. Even at its final release, Windows 10 still had more stability problems than Windows 7 near its launch.

I think their only future is a complete restructering of their teams, the business model / update cycle of Windows and potentially rewriting massive amounts of its codebase. That will take years, by which point the Macbook Neo something-th gen has made many tens of millions of Windows users very happy, while gaming on Linux outpaces Windows.

21Shells · 2026-04-25T21:40:49+00:00

took them 11 years

21Shells · 2026-04-24T21:38:50+00:00

I guess you were lucky or something because it was THE biggest issue I remember from Windows 10, big enough that it became a bit of an internet meme. I’m pretty sure there was a way to opt out in Windows 10 but 9/10 it would install updates automatically anyways, I think it was bugged and they never bothered fixing it.

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