What's next after v25.6?

winstep · **Joined:** Thu Feb 26, 2004 8:30 pm **Posts:** 12342

Ok, here you go, the before and after of what the user sees when they install Nexus on Windows 11 dark mode. It's definitely not a night and day difference, but I believe (hope?) there is enough of an improvement...

nexter · **Posted:** Mon Jul 21, 2025 4:10 am

winstep wrote:

Ahaha, I knew I could count on you for a non-sugar coated opinion. Thank you for that.

It's my pleasure Jorge.

You'll always know where you are with me - no sugar-coating, no fluff, just my honest thoughts.

winstep wrote:

So, true for not being an overall cohesive theme for the icons. Although included in the images, some of those have not been changed at all e.g. Wanda, the moon phases, battery module and the calendar.

Never seen that fish before, but then I banned that waste of space almost yonks ago.

(Always hated the very idea - daftest thing ever created in Linux.) As for the moon phases, short of an actual sequence of high definition photographs they can't really be improved, they're as near perfect as can be. Pity I don't have the time at the moment, otherwise I'd make and send you alt calendar and digital clock icons matching in style - but basically, I'd suggest the plain background (or perhaps mildly graduated) with plain white font for both. Battery again doesn't really need changing I think, although personally I just use a plain bar graph type affair..

winstep wrote:

Anyway, I struggle because I want something "in between" the true Windows 11 look and the old style, as I intensely dislike the UWP style of icons (I mean, have a look below, how ugly are most of those?!). Icons in Windows 11's own Shell32.dll actually STILL look pretty nice (just a "flatter" front-facing version of the old Windows 7 icons) and still retain a good amount of detail - but you will rarely see those in the Windows UI.

The UWP icons really look like something out of some kid's game or some such - ugly as hell.

Of course, don't see any of that here as I got rid of all the UWP stuff years ago (plus Edge, and more recently also Copilot and Copilot+ Recall). I've seen Win 11 icons in screenshots, not really much better than the UWP ones. On the whole I must say I'm much happier with the icons in Ubuntu and Fedora than anything in the Windows world, although even those are far from perfect.

winstep wrote:

As for the RAM meter being bar or histogram, that is actually something you can select in the settings dialog of all the meter modules.

Indeed. I've almost always used a bar here for the RAM one.

winstep wrote:

Finally, the NextSTART icon, I never really liked the "melted" original look... and the new images actually look better at smaller icon sizes.

Agreed, but then few icons look terribly good at large sizes unless very carefully designed, and then there's always a risk of them not working very well at smaller sizes. One more point in favour of the old NS icon as compared to the new ones - it better matches with the Winstep one

winstep wrote:

Anyway, Rome as not build in a day, and in pretty much the same way I do not have to make all the changes "right now", especially because I want the new version released ASAP. Getting into this icon changing business was already pretty risky for that goal.

Rome certainly wasn't built in a day, but bear in mind the flip side - it was (more or less) destroyed in not a lot more than one!

winstep wrote:

The most important thing is that the default look been of the free version of Nexus is different from the old Windows 7 style as much as possible, since that is what is downloaded the most (by far!) and is Winstep's "calling card".

Yes, I can appreciate that of course.

winstep wrote:

Something that I should have cleared up already, I am not a graphics designer so most of the new icons were made by ChatGPT and/or CoPilot under my "artistic direction" (lol) and based on the old icons, with a few tweaks in Photoshop here and there. It would have been impossible to generate these many new icons in such a short time otherwise.

No clearing up needed here.

Alas, I guessed you'd been seduced by the evils of ML/LLMs. That - pardon my French - shit will completely destroy any privacy yet if we're not very, very careful and vigilant.

N.B. - 500+ guests again!

nexter · **Posted:** Mon Jul 21, 2025 4:21 am

winstep wrote:

Ok, here you go, the before and after of what the user sees when they install Nexus on Windows 11 dark mode. It's definitely not a night and day difference, but I believe (hope?) there is enough of an improvement...

Overall, I have to agree - should appeal to the punters.

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What's next after v25.6?