I guess we will be seeing more of this kind of nonsense going forward .. SanpOS: a modern, education-focused AROS distro (work in progress): AROS FORUMS - AROSWorld

I can’t see any ‘modern’ vibes … what an ugly user interface. It flouts every design rule.

I read this as: how low are the expectations and the bar that people get excited about this kind of thing?

people are mostly only interested in superficial things, sadly - partly because they don't understand the work done "behind the scene" that makes AROS what it currently is, where as visual changes are more tangible for them.

That’s exactly the point – AROS embodies 30 years of knowledge and experience… and then along comes a student who thinks he knows better. It’s good to question things… otherwise we’d still believe the Earth was flat. But you do need to know what you’re doing. After all, an IT student and a UI designer aren’t quite the same thing.

I generally agree with you, and I don't think SanpOS is a particularly good example of modern UI design, product vision, collaboration, or a few other things. But I can also understand why people get excited about visual changes. From a product perspective, users experience the system as a whole, not as a collection of technical achievements. And while preserving AROS's Amiga roots and design philosophy is important, I think we also need to recognize that users in 2026 bring expectations shaped by macOS, Omarchy, and other modern environments. Not to mention the community's desire to compete with MorphOS. Visual design and usability aren't superficial additions to a product. They're part of what makes the underlying engineering valuable to its users.

"Visual design and usability aren't superficial additions to a product." That's not what I have stated - its that users are more interested in superficial things with no regard to if it actual makes any real difference. People focus on doing visual changes because users respond to it, and neglect the fixes needed underneath. You cant polish a turd as they say - but most users don't appreciate that. They get sold on gimmicky things.

I admit my response might have come across as an attack on your point, but that wasn't my intention. I don't disagree with you. You're right that people tend to work on visible changes because they get more recognition, often at the expense of less visible but more important work. In the end, I think we're talking about the same thing, just from different perspectives.