14 DAY TRIAL // Linux systems are evolving all the time and the users are always looking for ways to enhance their experience. Right now, the trend indicates that more and more desktops are being adorned with circle icons.
It's not clear when these circle icons became a "thing," but it definitely got a lot of traction in 2014. It's mostly popularized by the Numix-Circle Linux Desktop Icon Theme, which seems to be installed on numerous desktops, if we take a look at the screenshot posted on Google+ or Reddit. If this goes on for another year, it's very likely that we'll see them included by default in various distros and that would make them mainstream.
Linux actually needs a visually defining feature and that can only be accomplished if many operating systems choose the same kind of icons. Users are already installing them on their own, but it remains to be seen just how many people actually like them.
Linux is all about choice
Even as we speak, there are dozens of high quality icon packs that are being maintained and most of them can be installed on virtually any Linux operating system. Users have the choice of installing whatever they want and they often choose something other than the default ones.
If we take a look at desktops like Unity, GNOME, KDE, or Cinnamon, just to pick a few, we'll see that the icons used are actually not as good as some of the stuff that can be downloaded right now. The makers of these desktops don't have the manpower to improve drastically upon them and it's not usually a priority. That's why it's up to third-party devs and the users to show that they need to change.
If you don't know anything about circle icons and you have an Ubuntu system (or something based on it), you can try Numix right now by entering these commands:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install numix-icon-theme-circle
In any case, if you like the Numix icon theme, please make sure to leave a comment.
