#ClientSideDecorations

R.L. Dane :Debian: :OpenBSD: :FreeBSD: 🍡 :MiraLovesYou:rl_dane@polymaths.social
2025-12-25
R.L. Dane :Debian: :OpenBSD: :FreeBSD: 🍡 :MiraLovesYou:rl_dane@polymaths.social
2025-11-13

@peteorrall

I haven't tried #TDE/Trinity, but I honestly never used KDE 3 or 4, so there's no nostalgia for me there.

I have tried both modern (as of a couple years ago) #MATE and the last Gnome 2 version of Ubuntu, and other than the clunky old application menu, I immensely preferred the look of classic Gnome 2. It just felt a lot more crisp and contrasty, even at exactly the same screen resolution.

I have a lot of love for #XFCE, but less and less for GTK, which it's built on.
I have a hard time hiding my disdain for things like #ClientSideDecorations, which I think is one of the dumbest ideas to come out of (I'll say it politely) UI Design, ever.

I liken #CSD to having a car's steering cluttered with buttons for the stereo, A/C, and transmission shifter, so you have to stop and think about where you're grabbing it before turning the wheel. Just a terrible idea.

My other major UI gripe: Lack of contrast between active and inactive titlebars. They took something that was split-second-obvious and made it a silly aesthetic choice. EVERY SINGLE DESKTOP AND OS does this WRONG by default.

Sorry for ranting. πŸ˜“

R.L. Dane :Debian: :OpenBSD: :FreeBSD: 🍡 :MiraLovesYou:rl_dane@polymaths.social
2025-05-15

Some really smart industrial designer somewhere, somewhen:
I'm going to design a really novel ballpoint pen mechanism where you click on the button to engage the pen, but then click on the pen clip to release it. We'll make millions!!!

Me:

  • Grabs pen
  • Click, engages pen
  • Holds the pen to write something
  • Click, disengages pen
  • uh...
  • Click, engages pen
  • Holds pen
  • Click, disengages

Great, now I have to think about how I hold your precious pen. lol

#Design #IndustrialDesign #NotaFountainPenPleaseDontHateMeItsJustForWorkStuff

P.S., just realized that this is totally an analogy for modern UI Design, particularly "Client Side Decorations" (titlebar colonization by cruft, lol) and the horrid shoestring scrollbars that are so popular now.

One design worked PERFECTLY for fifty years, and some young person had to come along and "innovate" it without considering how it would affect the users.

Every. Dang. Time, people!

#UI #UX #UIDesign #CSD #CSDs #ClientSideDecorations

R.L. Dane :Debian: :OpenBSD: :FreeBSD: 🍡 :MiraLovesYou:rl_dane@polymaths.social
2025-03-14

> Ummmmm, where's my "show on all desktops button?"
GTK App: <Whistles>
> Hello?
GTK App: No idea. I gave you a search bar, tab buttons, various action buttons, a menu, close, maximize, and heck, even a minimize button. The titlebar even has the right gradient and color per your theme!
> But why can't I get my KDE/Qt standard pin/"show on all desktops" button which I need to manage having this window show on my second monitor on all desktops?
GTK App: Because eff you, that's why.

#ClientSideDecorations, everyone. I freaking hate them.

Edit: fix in-line quoting

R.L. Dane :Debian: :OpenBSD: :FreeBSD: 🍡 :MiraLovesYou:rl_dane@polymaths.social
2025-02-03

@patryk @mms

The app draws its own window decorations so screw you if you're not using the same desktop environment the app was written for (it will look terrible and out of place), and the app draws buttons and fields inside the area you're supposed to drag the window with (the titlebar).

#CSD / #ClientSideDecorations Is fundamentally like having the grip section of the steering wheel of your car full of buttons to control the horn, radio and shifter. It is the stupidest idea in #UI design in 50 years, and is a huge step backwards in #usability and accessibility.

2024-12-18

friends, I present: #GNOME client-side decorated titlebars in action

#linux #clientsidedecorations

Screenshot of the GNOME Shell top bar and the top of a maximized Slack window. The title of the Slack window is so far to the side, it is cut off by the edge of the screen.
R. L. Dane :debian: :openbsd:RL_Dane@fosstodon.org
2024-08-26

@wdormann

This is what makes me so irate about the stupid trend of client-side decorations (having buttons in the title bar).

Knowing where to grab a window to move it shouldn't require a tenth of a second's thought. And extending the application into the titlebar is a total transgression of that basic UI design principle.

#CSD #ClientSideDecorations

Gregory MerchΓ‘nquodvideo@mstdn.social
2024-07-15
2023-09-22

Apparently, when saving an image with Firefox running under KWin / Wayland, I am supposed to enter the filename into the window decoration (aka title bar) now.

I stand by my opinion: Client-side window decorations are a bad idea for two major reasons: They add inconsistency and make it more inconvenient to kill frozen graphical applications.

Regarding inconsistency: Other applications on my systems have a close button at the top right, drawn by the window manager. When my muscle memory guides me to click that button, I expect the application to be closed or the current dialog to be cancelled. Here I have the save button, doing quite the opposite of cancelling the current action. Apart from that, it looks completely different from every other window decoration – not to say it looks uglier either.

Regarding killing frozen applications: KWin has this nice feature to pop up a dialog asking users whether they want to kill the application, when they click on the close button and the application does not respond. This obviously cannot work with client side decorations. While that's just an inconvenience to me, it might be a bigger problem for novice users.

#clientsidedecorations #uidesign #Linux #Wayland #gtk #firefox #KWin

A screenshot showing a messed up file save dialog with the window decoration containing dialog controls: On the left, there is the cancel button, in the center we have the filename entry and on the right there is the save button.
R. L. Dane :debian: :openbsd:RL_Dane@fosstodon.org
2023-08-18

Ok, I'm back to hating on #ClientSideDecorations...

I have #KDE #Plasma Kwin set up so that middle-clicking on a titlebar sends the window to the background.

#Firefox's #CSD breaks that.

R. L. Dane :debian: :openbsd:RL_Dane@fosstodon.org
2022-09-05

So, Evolution just got an "upgrade" to #ClientSideDecorations. Ugh! I run a wm instead of a de for a reason! I want my wm to draw my titlebars. Considering jumping ship to #Thunderbird, but it has a significantly larger footprint. Also, I'm not crazy about my emails spawning #WebKit processes, spawning #gecko processes would be worse. #TechnoCurmudgeon

https://v2.jacky.wtf/jalcine@playvicious.social
2018-12-12

so #tootle (#GNOME / #ElementaryOS) has no issues with #CSD / #ClientSideDecorations when I'm logged out. But when I log in, it's a shit show. Why not use consistent decorations? I really can't figure this out. Why is letting your desktop environment handle window decorations a bad idea / an anti-pattern now?

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