I’m not a great programmer, to me it’s just a hobby. I am more interested in desktop programming than web programming. When it comes to making a GUI however, it strikes me how difficult it seems to make a fully customised GUI with effects etc. for desktops, while websites are full of different designs and special effects. Of course, there is a need of consistency between applications on desktop, which somehow isn’t needed on the Internet. Yet it seems desktop programmers are bound to using pre-sets of GUI kits (Gtk, Qt, Wx etc.), and overcoming the former looks like a huge amount of work.
So that’s a subjective statement of mine. And that’s a very naughty thing to do on a Stack Exchange website. But is this statement somehow justifiable or founded on some (technical) truth?
If not, could you provide with some information? NB: I work on Linux only.
In my opinion, desktop GUI design is easier simply due to the abundance of such aforementioned tools. In my experience, it’s easier to implement a complex GUI as a desktop application, than the equivalent GUI on a web browser. In the latter case you need to take browsers, screen size, sessions, security and many more factors into account.