The elementary OS team writes about its Linux distribution, covering HiDPI, AppCenter, Flatpak, and interface changes.
HN commenters link its posts when debating HiDPI and fractional scaling, app monetization through AppCenter, and small design choices like password feedback.
It's a pity that as soon as an app tries to monetize (even optionally), it's suddenly at the mercy of the megacorps. Now you need a storefront, a payment processor, a refund infrastructure, etc. Better to just let the tech giants who already have the infrastructure handle the billing, in exchange for taking a monumental cut of your revenue and imposing binding, arbitrary rules at a moment's notice.
This incident would be a poster child for the widespread need for something like the AppCenter being developed by the ElementaryOS team, where the apps can have a "suggested" price tag but be free to download:
https://medium.com/elementaryos/appcenter-the-future-of-the-universe-1d34f04d1c85
Regrettably it's Linux only at the moment. It would be interesting to see what kind of landscape of FOSS apps we might get if it got ported to Windows.
Fractional scaling is stupid. 150% × 4K = 1440p so just buy 1440p screen but 150% on 4K will mean misaligned pixel grid. If you need more real estate and want HiDPI then you need 5K display, not 4K. 5K is 1440p@2.
Fractional scaling should be under seven “Are you sure? What you’re doing is stupid.” pop-ups. Instead at least Windows 10 actually makes 150% the default. Boggles my mind.
Here’s a good article series on this topic by Elementary OS dev:
https://medium.com/elementaryos/what-is-hidpi-and-why-does-it-matter-b024eabea20d
https://medium.com/elementaryos/top-3-misconceptions-about-hidpi-f5ef493d7bf8
Elementary is the OS you're looking for: https://elementary.io
I wish it had more adoption. Right now there are not a lot of apps written using it's UI guidelines/framework as most projects are worried about portability and/or have moved to Electron. It is slowly getting better though, and seems to be developing an ecosystem geared towards quality as OSX used to be: https://medium.com/elementaryos/appcenter-spotlight-2017-wrap-up-3ab050256069
"Just a tiny change, password feedback is now enabled by default. So when you type your sudo password you’ll see asterisks instead of wondering if you’re typing anything at all ;)"
Argh. https://medium.com/elementaryos/loki-updates-for-the-new-year-ff6b6ba65531
> - we don't care that MacOS does it well
At least in 2017 they claimed MacOS didn't do it well[1].
Do you have a link to something more recent where they changed their position?
1: https://medium.com/elementaryos/top-3-misconceptions-about-hidpi-f5ef493d7bf8
Elementary is also working on a way to default most apps to a better file picker:
https://www.reddit.com/r/elementaryos/comments/gs86hj/thumbnails_when_using_the_open_file_dialog_box_i/
https://medium.com/elementaryos/a-new-native-file-chooser-196acf9b06f0