
Quantum OS - OS based on Linux which conforms to Material Design guidelines - turrini
http://quantum-os.github.io/
======
DCKing
I'm just going to leave a comment to contrast the usual negativity.

What I like about this is:

\- The developers are not attempting to reinvent the wheel.

\- Material Design is well-regarded on mobile devices, and it's interesting to
see what you can do with its ideas on the desktop.

\- They clearly pick technologies that are the way forward on the Linux
desktop: Wayland and Qt+QML. It's great that these things are maturing to the
point that we can start leaving behind X and that it's clear that Qt has won
the toolkit war.

\- Focused approach of not (yet) supporting different distros, but (like
Elementary OS) an attempt to focus on getting it to work well for _one_ system
configuration.

I hope these guys can put in the time and effort to make something out of
this. It seems they are making a couple of good decisions already.

~~~
nly
> Material Design is well-regarded on mobile devices

Says who? Isn't Lollypop all MD based? I've heard quite a bit of 'meh boring'
reactions to it

~~~
PaulHoule
I just got Lollipop on my 2nd generation Nexus 7 and overall it seems like a
downgrade instead of an upgrade.

~~~
0xFFC
I don't have Android Lollipop and I am really curious , can you explain a
little further?

~~~
PaulHoule
The new keyboard looks awful.

There is some kind of network problem that causes 3 to 10 second latencies
when I look up web pages at home with DSL but is not so bad at the gym with
cable. I think DNS is involved.

It used to be that a left hand swipe and a right hand swipe would bring up
different menus but now I have to swipe multiple times to count through the
menus. It's that kind of hamhanded design that make people think bigger
devices are unwieldy

~~~
redacted
While not your biggest issue by far: you can change the colour scheme of the
Lollipop keyboard in its settings. "Material Dark" is a far more attractive
setting (and I think the "Holo" settings will make it look like the older
keyboard).

------
sz4kerto
Please no. Material design might work well for mobile devices, where you don't
spend too much time in front of a single screen (by screen I mean app screen,
not the physical screen). The screenshots show exactly what the problem is:

\- really bright colors in the top bars: that's exactly what we _don't_ want
in desktop apps, as the focus is on the (changing) content, not the title
bars. Grab this [http://quantum-
os.github.io/images/desktop_layout_1.png](http://quantum-
os.github.io/images/desktop_layout_1.png), resize it to full screen, and
you'll see what I mean.

\- large empty spaces: for me it's too much even on touch-based devices, but
on the desktop it's just utter waste of real estate.

I want the desktop to get less and less popular, so then the OS and app makers
can start optimizing for people who create stuff (e.g. me), and it could look
like [http://i.imgur.com/7Tu2i6W.png](http://i.imgur.com/7Tu2i6W.png) or
[http://yxbenj.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/vs2012_colortheme_...](http://yxbenj.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/vs2012_colortheme_example.png)

~~~
afro88
Totally disagree on the only mobile point. I've been using Google Inbox as my
main mail client for about 2 weeks now and it's great. Doesn't get sore on the
eyes and my workflow with it is really quick (as in, it doesn't rely on touch
to work). Yes I know it's a web app, but it may as well be a standalone
application.

I do agree on not using material colours for app title bars. But that's my
only real issue. I personally think material design looks great, and this
example screenshot looks much cleaner and aesthetically pleasing already than
the current linux offerings

~~~
dkersten
I personally love Inbox on my phone, but hate it on my laptop. I don't like
how everything is so spaced out and personally don't find it easy on the eyes
or matching my workflow at all. In fact, I've been trying to do as much of my
email-related tasks as possible on my phone these past three weeks because of
it, because Inbox itself is fantastic.

~~~
andybak
In terms of space usage, I' actually prefer the more spaced out approach.
Other apps look a bit cramped and cluttered now in comparison.

A few related data points: I'm a developer and project manager.

I do all my work on a 13" laptop with nearly every app full-screen (I hate
having two tasks visible unless I actually need both at once - which is very
rare).

My eyesight isn't marvelous so that might be a factor. :-)

------
igammarays
Am I the only one who doesn't get this Material Design everywhere thing? Maybe
it's why I'm not a designer, but do we really want all our UI experiences
everywhere to look exactly the same (with perhaps color variance only)? I mean
I'm all for having design principles, like the timeless principles of
typography, which have near-infinite variance, but with a powerful yet subtle
underlying set of guidelines which make it beautiful and legible. Material
Design seems to me like Google branding forced all over the place. Boring.

~~~
calinet6
UX designer here. It's way overhyped. The concepts behind it are great (using
good motion design, giving proper feedback, showing clear affordances for
actions, and lots of other good stuff), but that does not mean that everything
has to look like Google's material template to work.

For everyone: take the UX cues from Material, sure, but please make it your
own. The clone army is getting very, very old.

~~~
orbifold
The sad truth is in particular in the free software space there are only a few
gems of truly inspiring consumer software, the rest are mindless rip-offs with
terrible UI. Especially the chrome and rendering techniques used on a modern
linux desktop compared to both Windows / Mac OS X are hacks. Compare for
example the graphical foundation libraries of Mac OS X with the X11 +
compositing wm + gtk / qt stack. So for example Yosemite style translucency
might be implementable, but not in the presumably nice way OS X is able to do
it, because OpenGL is not integrated as tightly in the graphics stack in
Linux.

~~~
dkersten
Qt 5/QML is implemented as an OpenGL-based scene graph and is tightly
integrated with OpenGL.

~~~
orbifold
Right, but at least as far as I know, currently a window manager trying to do
compositing in Linux has to fight with X11 to achieve that, because it was not
really designed to support that use case. Which is why Wayland is getting
traction I guess.

~~~
xorcist
OpenGL originated from the X world, for better or for worse, so I doubt
there's much fighting going on. Any modern OpenGL is pretty separate from it
however.

------
Spearchucker
I like this. I don't like it because I like Material or even Linux. I like it
because I want to build a compelling user interface for my own app. The two
best reference UI's I've seen (and yes, this is subjective) are Office and
Visual Studio. Nothing else out there that's even vaguely mainstream and on a
desktop pushes boundaries like those two. And yet I like neither of them. My
own design
([https://www.wittenburg.co.uk/Entry.aspx?id=bc4a9a14-cdd5-4c0...](https://www.wittenburg.co.uk/Entry.aspx?id=bc4a9a14-cdd5-4c08-a3a6-9d6f9c7f1656))
reflects the best I can do. I'm not creative, nor am I an expert at UI or UX,
so its really useful seeing what others come up with.

And that is why I appreciate both the effort it took to put this together, and
a new perspective that someone was generous enough to share.

~~~
hollerith
I would download and explore Interact if you were to publish it under an open-
source license.

~~~
Spearchucker
It will be open sourced. Just as soon as I have a working beta (core functions
must work).

------
ai_ja_nai
I'm not getting why someone has to declare "we are creating a new OS", instead
of just settling on "we are creating a better UI". OS is a very serious thing
that has nothing to do with usability as it is perceived by grandma

~~~
josteink
To be fair a "OS" is a compilation of lots of components: kernel, user-land
utilities, a user-facing graphical environment and associated tools. You know,
the source behind the whole "GNU/Linux" affair.

This means that somewhere you have to draw the line.

Android has a Linux-kernel, but (from a user's point of view) shares near
nothing with a "regular" GNU/Linux OS, so it's considered an OS of its own.
Which I think most people will be fine with.

That Debian is a GNU/Linux OS should be beyond any debate.

Ubuntu is a plain Debian-derivate. Is it its own OS? It's "merely" added a
prettier installer, pre-bundled some common firmware and added a new
(different) login-manager and GUI shell (Unity) and tried to add some
consistent themes on top of that?

Elementary OS is (as far as I know) based on Ubuntu. It's the same story,
except this time they're not just changing the shell (Pantheon instead of
Unity), they're also creating lots og new user-facing GUI applications
consistent with their own design-guidelines to compliment it.

A user using elementary OS and just the pre-provided GUI-apps a no terminal,
will only see components provided by elementary OS. A new OS or just a new
GUI? If we accept the principles behind Android being its own OS, this should
be too: A user sees nothing of the traditional Linux apps or Linux DEs.

If we don't accept elementary OS as its own OS, why don't we? And if so why do
we accept Android as such? You have to draw the line somewhere, and I agree
this is hard. But if we accept elementary OS as its own OS, how is this (once
built) not?

------
overgard
I hope they package the desktop environment in a way that it can also be used
on other distros. Going to an entirely new OS seems a bit much to me, but I'd
be way more willing to try it out if I could just install it next to KDE or
whatnot.

~~~
mikkom
> Going to an entirely new OS seems a bit much to me

To be brutally honest it sounds like they don't know what they are doing - _at
all_.

~~~
dharma1
I did think that too - why not just release this as a Qt widget library? Why a
new distro?

~~~
wolfgke
Even a new distro is not a new OS (in opposite to what they claim).

~~~
tormeh
So is Android not an OS because it uses the Linux kernel? If it is a program
that manages other programs and is itself not managed then it is an OS, is
what I've heard. Just because you're only making a small part yourself doesn't
make the assembled thing not an OS.

~~~
mikkom
Android is not distro, it is a fork. In similar way they could build a new os
based on linux but the work compared to just replacing UI is massive and
maintenance is absolutely not something you want to do if you just want to
replace ui.

[http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2009/02/an-introduction-to-
go...](http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2009/02/an-introduction-to-google-
android-for-developers/)

------
imsofuture
Are we still confused about OS vs window manager?

~~~
Hario
Exactly.

Is Gnome an Operating System? Is Unity? Then why is "Quantum OS" one?

------
marknadal
I've been asking a lot of people if they know of any "fresh start OSs that
have modern minimalist UX" lately - and haven't gotten any good responses. So
much that I've been planning on maybe building my own soon. But THIS, this
looks like a great beginning! I'm super excited to watch this make progress!
Congrats, great job, and keep it up.

------
kagia
I for one think it's time we saw bold and ambitious attempts at changing the
desktop.

Most desktops today are arguably variations of the desktops we were introduced
to in windows95 and OSX (v10). The colours, placement and names change but
rarely does anything new show up (save for metro desktop).

With wayland and mutter/qt+ this is a great time to try out wild and out-there
concepts. It's the only way to break out and really change the desktop.

I can understand peoples frustration; the desktop, after all, wraps up
everything we experience when we use our machines. However I will approach
this with an open mind, and I certainly hope others will do the same.

~~~
laumars
In my personal opinion, Windows 95 was pretty much the benchmark for how to
build an intuitive and productive desktop environment.

There's obviously a few things that have come since that have improved upon it
(eg quick search in the start menu / launcher, and the way how Linux better
groups applications in it's launchers than Windows does in it's start menu) as
well as mistakes made since (Windows quick launch start menu tool bar being
one prime example). But for me, Microsoft really did create the design concept
of optimal working environment.

Obviously this is just my preferences - many would disagree. But I think the
reason why there are so many variations on the Windows 95 desktop is because
many people feel like myself in that it's a paradigm that works extremely well
for them too.

~~~
wvenable
I agree and many attempts to push away from the Windows 95 design in order to
be different have been usability nightmares

~~~
zanny
I've had a lot of people have good experiences with the Unity launcher. It is
highly divisive from anything else on the market (it is a search frame always
with filtering tabs) but does its job nicely. Homerun from KDE acts the exact
same, except it is a full screen version.

------
mattd9
The new version can be found here: [https://github.com/quantum-
os](https://github.com/quantum-os) You can read the reasons here:
[https://plus.google.com/113262712329378697012/posts/M1muF1f7...](https://plus.google.com/113262712329378697012/posts/M1muF1f766H)

------
jarcane
But ... why?

What does Material even offer to a Desktop OS?

And why a whole custom distribution, instead of a desktop environment?

~~~
DCKing
(These answers are guesses)

> What does Material even offer to a Desktop OS?

A sense of (generally well-regarded) design direction made by professional
designers. Familiarity to Android users. Not reinventing the wheel and doing a
worse job at it.

> And why a whole custom distribution, instead of a desktop environment?

It's easier to make an integrated desktop if it isn't distribution agnostic.
This way you can easily depend on distribution-specific stuff like which
version of Wayland it has, depend on systemd, PulseAudio, which package
manager it uses, what font settings it has, which GPU drivers it uses. If you
make this a desktop environment instead of distribution, then you need to make
it work with a far more diverse set of variables, which I think is undesirable
when you're starting out (or even in general).

~~~
ricardobeat
Your first reason is a bit condescending. KDE Plasma, Unity, Elementary, etc.
all have clear design guidelines, and are all made by professional designers.
They are not any less professional because you disagree with their choices /
reasoning, and it's not clear that what makes Material Design work on mobile
will translate well to the desktop at all.

~~~
graublau
Big issue is that professional designers don't typically use linux
distributions. It's a real shame because Linux really needs some attention.:
[https://www.kde.org/announcements/4.6/screenshots/46netbook2...](https://www.kde.org/announcements/4.6/screenshots/46netbook2.png)

~~~
dharma1
I agree, and the reason is mainly lack of good design tools on Linux. It
wouldn't take much though, perhaps there will be a Qt based design tool in the
near future which will have a Linux port, and we'll see more designers
(especially web designers) moving over.

If there was Photoshop or Sketch for Linux, and a lot of people could migrate.
And no, GIMP or Inkscape don't cut it

------
livebeef
They should just write a gnome/metacity theme and call it a day. There is no
point in having a new OS/distribution just to feature a new UI.

------
Vecrios
So much negativity in these comments. Instead of saying "why?" or "MD is for
mobile screens," present your opinions in a factual matter to support your
arguments.

I personally don't prefer the MD/Metro look design philosophy. This stems from
the fact that I believe in designs that help accomplish a task, not prettify
it for the sole of prettifying it.

~~~
jshevek
I agree regarding the negativity. They come to "hacker news" but don't think
like hackers.

------
2lphacod
Firstly, really great initiative. Looking forward to this. However, arent
these two objectives contradictory

"The focus will be on creating a "stable" and easy-to-use operating system"

and

"Our goal is to base our work on the latest upstream versions available"

instead of using more tested and reviewed versions. Unstable drivers are a
very common issue making the linux experience hard.

------
sandGorgon
For people wondering about GTK,this was posted on Reddit

[http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/2mzqy5/xpost_from_r...](http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/2mzqy5/xpost_from_rlinux_a_new_linux_distro_being_worked/cm9785d)

>Evolve OS reached out to them, we started with a chrome OS esque environment,
and we started a material gtk theme. This uses qt, which is good for new apps,
but not existing. Evolve is implementing a new lib for animations, that'll
work with gtk, and existing apps. We've got dreams for it, check out the live
stream on YouTube!

------
nsmartt
Can now be found here: [http://quantum-os.github.io/blog/2014/11/introduction-
and-in...](http://quantum-os.github.io/blog/2014/11/introduction-and-initial-
plans/)

------
killercup
I generally like the look and feel of Material, but I'm not sure how well it
works with mouse and keyboard.

~~~
andybak
From everything I've read it wasn't intended to be specifically for touch and
Google's use of it for the new Inbox interface would seem to bear this out.

------
Rapzid
I would be more interested in this as a desktop environment alternative, or a
skin of an existing one. Not as a new distro though. The message is a bit
mixed but I gather they want to control a new distro ecosystem and are
starting with the UI as a way to draw in users.

------
knappador
Bells should be going off in a head somewhere about using Android alongside a
desktop Linux home-rolled to become an amalgamated ecosystem of both and "just
work" on a PC form factor but with LTE. Developers are demanding it so much
that we're building it.

------
coleifer
Is this in any way related to this project?

[http://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/2mka7r/update_mate...](http://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/comments/2mka7r/update_material_design_gtk_theme_things_are/)

It's based on Evolve OS.

------
riyadparvez
Link is broken!

~~~
realityking
It was there a minute ago and it suddenly disappeared, including the GitHub
repository. Weird.

Edit: It seems like it just got renmaned. It's now available under
[https://github.com/quantum-os](https://github.com/quantum-os) but the blog is
not yet up.

~~~
jesse_m
The Google+ page says they need to come up with a new name because it
conflicted with the Quartz graphics stack name used by OS X. This might be why
everything is taken down.

------
scotu
I really want not to be snarky and downplay anyone efforts, but I just wanted
to point out that such an operative system already exists and is open source.
You may have heard about it, it's called android... I can't even think of a
valid reason to "reproduce" (aka making something that kind of looks like it
but in the end is annoyingly different). For fun, maybe is the only valid
one...

Seriously though if you pulled a nice installer for really up to date android
on my desktop the thousands of apps in the play store and I would be really
grateful...

Can someone think of any solid reason for why I should be interested?

~~~
ecspike
I love Android but I'm also a developer. It's not productive to try and write
code on Android. I have in the past skinned my Gnome Shell to look like
Android Holo (I just applied styles someone else created).

Much like bumper stickers or giving your hatchback racing stripes, it's a way
that people can personalize their experience.

Also for the people who are designing the skin, it gives them practice
interpreting/adapting the spec and some of that knowledge may trickle back to
the source.

------
desireco42
This is one of the best ideas I heard in years. To me this totally makes
sense, plays on Linux strengths etc. I wish you best and intend to follow
closely.

------
eklavya
If nothing else, a material UI widget set comes out of it which I can use to
write android and ios apps. Thanks for this :)

------
augustk
If the special effects can be turned of and it will be as efficient as the
Blackbox Window Manager I may give it a try.

------
MrBra
Why not having just as a theme for current Linux window managers? What is the
reason for a whole O.S. behind that?

------
zorbo
Pointless cached version without the pretty pictures:
[http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ypB2BA-...](http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ypB2BA-9GhIJ:quartz-
os.github.io/blog/2014/11/introduction-and-initial-
plans/+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=nl)

~~~
Danieru
Here's one of the missing photos: [https://github.com/quantum-os/quantum-
os.github.io/blob/mast...](https://github.com/quantum-os/quantum-
os.github.io/blob/master/images/desktop_layout_1.png)

------
rrggrr
Reminds me of BEos. Not quite sure why. Great effort. Keep at it.

------
tormeh
Is it based on Unity? It looks really good.

------
lwelly
Where can I download it from?

------
kchoudhu
"Google, will you hire me? Pretty please?"

------
zenciadam
What's its ultimate tensile strength of the OS?

------
kolbe
Material Design aside, the development community should have somehow reserved
the name "Quantum OS" for the first operating system to run on the first
quantum computing devise. I'm almost offended that some port of Linux is
trying to bogart it.

------
gcb0
You know what would be a great idea? get a Window Manager that everyone is
hating because the usability and customization that took years to achieve is
being throw out of the window by the new maintainers just to copy Apple's UI,
and let's use that and add Google's latest UI mumble jumble, and instead of
just releasing as a window manager, let's call it a new distro.

