IOCUS (or, Why KDE Oxygen?)
Apr. 12th, 2026 09:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
comix64once upon a time (August '24 YoC), the lower story of my house was being evacuated. all of the objects there were being moved. why? the carpet was being replaced, free of charge. we went from a dim brown to a bright white, and it felt much flatter and nicer on my feet. there is a room on this lower floor which came to be called the den. this is because it has no closet, and was used as a storage room. there was a lot of stuff in it. so much stuff you had to watch your step and climb over things every time you wanted to get anywhere. for most of my time there, i viewed the den as like a vault. there were a lot of forgotten and old things in there. when the lower floor was evacuated, all of the stuff inside the den was moved. this had a sort of shuffling effect, and i was able to find a lot of things i had never seen despite having searched around that room for many years. most of the stuff in there was the property of my parents. among other things, i found a couple MacBooks, belonging to my mother, which i named Spinball and T-Spin, and also a 2001 Acer ZG5 AOA150. this had an intel i386 Atom processor, 1GB of RAM, and a whopping 160GB HDD. this netbook was abandoned by my dad because it had some firmware or BIOS issue that caused it to paperweight itself. he claimed he had fixed it before but it had happened again and so he gave up on the machine, and furthermore could not remember the issue or its solution. needless to say, this did not stop me, and i dug through the intrawebs for about 2 days before i found an archive of instructions and the necessary files. i successfully recovered iocus, uploaded the files to the Internet Archive, and then spent some time with the machine. it dualbooted Windows XP and some version of Kubuntu i unfortunately cannot remember (at one point i did find out and flashed a USB of it, more on that later), which had KDE Plasma 4.8.2 (this is very important). my dad still knew his credentials, so he showed me his desktops (his Linux desktop was exquisite, complete w/ RSS feed widget and beautiful leaf/droplet wallpaper, one of the default KDE 4 ones, but his Windows XP one was barren and had all the default customizations, since he despises Windows and only used it for his job) and made me accounts. i had the Horos wallpaper and a minimal desktop. this machine is largely how i learned most of my Linux knowledge. i had it for less than a year, however, when he made the project to upgrade it to the most recent i386 release, which was Kubuntu 18.04.6 LTS. i was pretty clueless in this matter, so i let him go ahead and do it. the upgrade was done, and i logged in to find... i was on KDE Plasma 5. and it looked ugly! my account on KDE 4 had KDE Netbook (which looked identical to this picture because i didn't really understand a lot of the ricing and theming and customization yet), and since i had the defaults for most of my themes and such, it assumed i didnt care about themes and so lo and behold when it upgraded to KDE5 it changed my desktop to the default Breeze theme for KDE5. and let me tell you, Breeze works, but it looks ugly as shit to me. it feels like trying to use one of those MIT Scratch projects that're crappy middle-schoolers' recreations of "Windows XD", or whatever their minds came to, but as a genuine desktop. it's like if i got a job at a cutting-edge corp. and they set me up with Microsoft Bob. it felt ridiculous to use. Breeze felt like i was trying to do some serious Ghost in the Shell type of operations, maneuvering files and hacking into people's brains, but using, like, a Toblerone bar. Breeze felt like trying to shatter someone's skull using just computer knowledge but the computer is literally a Toblerone bar. i despised it. my hateful distaste for Breeze is what led me to familiarize myself with the TTY, and learn the keybind (CTRL+ALT+F# where # is the TTY number) and really get comfortable with UNIX grammar and commands. if it weren't for Breeze robbing me of my beautiful skeuomorphic Oxygen, in its natural habitat of KDE 4, i would have never fallen from the plushy comfort of Oxygen unto the raw hard floor of the TTY. now, do i still use Oxygen, despite my now familiarization w/ the TTY and commandline? yes! the two coexist on pretty much all of my Linux machines. but in that empty, lukewarm den, with nothing but a MacBook bag, a Demon Days CD, a Mountain Dew can and iocus, clicking around the big squircled glassy buttons, trying to figure out Kopete and Dolphin, i felt something. i felt something that i never felt again and that feeling is what drives me toward my craving of all this nostalgia. it is why i love skeuomorphism, beyond how good it looks. i felt the opposite of nostalgia.
nostalgia is when you feel a longing for the past. nostalgia is thinking back on something you, in naïvete, did not appreciate the same as you do now. nostalgia is looking back on your memory of rooms, and pointing out all the features of your old bed and saying "I remember. I miss it. I remember it so well", and nostalgia is being young. nostalgia is remembering a beauty you didn't notice. but in that empty room, armed with nothing but a CD and a drink, surfing around what was installed by my dad in 2002, i felt the opposite of nostalgia. i was completely aware of the nostalgic qualities of what was right in front of me. i felt as though i was, myself, the nostalgic memory. i knew that this would become nostalgic. but the naïvete was from the fact that i assumed i would keep it like this. i assumed that it would stay on KDE 4, with its plushy UI that i had so blissfully become accustomed to. i had never encountered such a style of computing. i had never used KDE 4 before. in fact, i hadn't used very many old computers at all. i had no clue about the history of computing.
when my dad upgraded iocus, i thought it would come back to me with more action-packed features, you know, maybe i'd get a desktop (remember, i was still on KDE Netbook and had no clue how to turn it off, what it was called, or why my desktop had a bunch'a buttons and my dad had them all in cascading menus at the bottom of the screen). maybe i would get the cutting-edge ability to have two windows open at once (KDE Netbook is sort of like trying to have two games open at once on any gaming console. you have to pick one or the other)? but no. KDE 5. i had a desktop, now, sure. i could browse the web while also watching a video, with my screen split in half. but all of KDE 4's style was gone. and so i felt a hate, not for the new ability, the new capability, but because i assumed KDE 5 had to sacrifice its style for functionality. (KDE Netbook, remember, i had no clue it wasn't what KDE 4 actually looked like, i assumed my dad did some serious hacking shit to, like, proxy what Windows and OS X looked like in terms of having a wallpaper and a menu at the bottom, i assumed KDE 4 was just like that). i thought KDE 4 was unique in its design, and i thought that all of that had been sacrificed for, what, a wallpaper and being able to move around your windows?
but no. instead, KDE Netbook was a marginalized feature, and was removed when KDE Plasma 5 came around. at the same time, KDE Oxygen's design language was dropped in favor of the flat default of Breeze. i was very new to the Linux scene, and so i thought that it was just that. i thought i had no choice. i had no clue about the extensive theming capability KDE had. i will say, even now, the default on KDE is still Breeze, and it still looks like shit. granted, i am totally biased because of these events, and i will say it looks a hell of a lot more usable on a daily-basis machine, it has a nice minimal color-behind effect, and looks a lot more lightweight. still, i do not prefer it. i definitely do not prefer it. compare the previous link to this, for instance. maybe some people prefer minimalism, but all the little details, the glossy shine, the color influence, like frosted glass, they really mean a lot to me. even if you get rid of a lot of Oxygen's specific parts, replace them with Breeze, i think the two look good in harmony, as well. but Breeze on its own has a visual i simply detest. Oxygen is one of the main reasons i am still alive, to be completely brutal. if i had been shown Oxygen and told, like "You will never see this ever again", i think there's a pretty good chance i would give up on it all. i live for Oxygen (among other things). if you had been shown this in one of your first experiences with a machine, wouldn't it be profound? wouldn't you notice that style? before i could ever articulate my appreciation for style, aesthetic, i felt a determination above all to try, just to tell someone how much i loved Oxygen. and maybe it's something trivial. why fuss about the style of the UI? shouldn't you be worrying about whether the programs actually do their job? shouldn't you be doing your job? get a room! life these days doesn't focus on the style of machines! especially now, where everything is so minimal and flat, i see Oxygen's return and Apple's modern interpretation of a style people have become a lot more aware of and nostalgic for lately, as something to be hopeful for. i hope one day i will be surrounded by Oxygen and i will be happy. i will be reverse nostalgic. i will go back to being, myself, the nostalgic memory. hopefully there will be a day where i feel it again, the reverse nostalgia, and be confident that there will be no day wherein i am, actually, nostalgic about the now-past return. what i mean to say is, i want a happily-ever-after for maximalist gloss, see-through panels, and above all, i want to live my life where all machines speak to me in those tunes. i want to pick up any old thing and be greeted with Oxygen.
as if it were as common as the Air around me.
nostalgia is when you feel a longing for the past. nostalgia is thinking back on something you, in naïvete, did not appreciate the same as you do now. nostalgia is looking back on your memory of rooms, and pointing out all the features of your old bed and saying "I remember. I miss it. I remember it so well", and nostalgia is being young. nostalgia is remembering a beauty you didn't notice. but in that empty room, armed with nothing but a CD and a drink, surfing around what was installed by my dad in 2002, i felt the opposite of nostalgia. i was completely aware of the nostalgic qualities of what was right in front of me. i felt as though i was, myself, the nostalgic memory. i knew that this would become nostalgic. but the naïvete was from the fact that i assumed i would keep it like this. i assumed that it would stay on KDE 4, with its plushy UI that i had so blissfully become accustomed to. i had never encountered such a style of computing. i had never used KDE 4 before. in fact, i hadn't used very many old computers at all. i had no clue about the history of computing.
when my dad upgraded iocus, i thought it would come back to me with more action-packed features, you know, maybe i'd get a desktop (remember, i was still on KDE Netbook and had no clue how to turn it off, what it was called, or why my desktop had a bunch'a buttons and my dad had them all in cascading menus at the bottom of the screen). maybe i would get the cutting-edge ability to have two windows open at once (KDE Netbook is sort of like trying to have two games open at once on any gaming console. you have to pick one or the other)? but no. KDE 5. i had a desktop, now, sure. i could browse the web while also watching a video, with my screen split in half. but all of KDE 4's style was gone. and so i felt a hate, not for the new ability, the new capability, but because i assumed KDE 5 had to sacrifice its style for functionality. (KDE Netbook, remember, i had no clue it wasn't what KDE 4 actually looked like, i assumed my dad did some serious hacking shit to, like, proxy what Windows and OS X looked like in terms of having a wallpaper and a menu at the bottom, i assumed KDE 4 was just like that). i thought KDE 4 was unique in its design, and i thought that all of that had been sacrificed for, what, a wallpaper and being able to move around your windows?
but no. instead, KDE Netbook was a marginalized feature, and was removed when KDE Plasma 5 came around. at the same time, KDE Oxygen's design language was dropped in favor of the flat default of Breeze. i was very new to the Linux scene, and so i thought that it was just that. i thought i had no choice. i had no clue about the extensive theming capability KDE had. i will say, even now, the default on KDE is still Breeze, and it still looks like shit. granted, i am totally biased because of these events, and i will say it looks a hell of a lot more usable on a daily-basis machine, it has a nice minimal color-behind effect, and looks a lot more lightweight. still, i do not prefer it. i definitely do not prefer it. compare the previous link to this, for instance. maybe some people prefer minimalism, but all the little details, the glossy shine, the color influence, like frosted glass, they really mean a lot to me. even if you get rid of a lot of Oxygen's specific parts, replace them with Breeze, i think the two look good in harmony, as well. but Breeze on its own has a visual i simply detest. Oxygen is one of the main reasons i am still alive, to be completely brutal. if i had been shown Oxygen and told, like "You will never see this ever again", i think there's a pretty good chance i would give up on it all. i live for Oxygen (among other things). if you had been shown this in one of your first experiences with a machine, wouldn't it be profound? wouldn't you notice that style? before i could ever articulate my appreciation for style, aesthetic, i felt a determination above all to try, just to tell someone how much i loved Oxygen. and maybe it's something trivial. why fuss about the style of the UI? shouldn't you be worrying about whether the programs actually do their job? shouldn't you be doing your job? get a room! life these days doesn't focus on the style of machines! especially now, where everything is so minimal and flat, i see Oxygen's return and Apple's modern interpretation of a style people have become a lot more aware of and nostalgic for lately, as something to be hopeful for. i hope one day i will be surrounded by Oxygen and i will be happy. i will be reverse nostalgic. i will go back to being, myself, the nostalgic memory. hopefully there will be a day where i feel it again, the reverse nostalgia, and be confident that there will be no day wherein i am, actually, nostalgic about the now-past return. what i mean to say is, i want a happily-ever-after for maximalist gloss, see-through panels, and above all, i want to live my life where all machines speak to me in those tunes. i want to pick up any old thing and be greeted with Oxygen.
as if it were as common as the Air around me.
