y do linux icons look like linux icons?

[davbren]

I know it seems a silly question but do you not find that it doesn't matter what screenshot of what icons, you can always identify linux. Personally I'm not designer, howeverI think that something needs to be done about the icons. I've seen one very dubious screenshot of Intrepid which looks like they've taken a leaf from M$'s book with the icons.

Whats your opinion?

[raul_]

I know what screenshots you mean. I don't think they're real (or Gnome has changed a lot since the last I used it, like 3 months ago) Probably just mock-ups

[Tomatz]

Go here to get icons:

http://www.gnome-look.org/

[davbren]

Cheers, I use this site quite a lot. I'm using the Elemental icon theme at the momentas its teh least "linux" like.

[ad_267]

I also recommend the crashbit icon theme. Look at this thread for some inspiration on changing the look of your desktop: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=814489

[Tomatz]

Cheers, I use this site quite a lot. I'm using the Elemental icon theme at the momentas its teh least "linux" like.

I use this:

http://www.gnome-look.org/content/sh...?content=56625

Very non linux and intergrates well.

If you decide to use it install the tango theme first from the repos then switch to tango then install and select nuoveXT 2. That way all the icons are used.

[Ub1476]

There are two "Linux/Gnu" icons. It's Tango, which is my personal favorite. It has simple icons, good shadows, relaxing colors, simple to understand. It gives you information and looks good, but doesn't make you stop to take a second glance at the icon.

Tango is used in Gnome and for most applications, the standard icon follows the Tango guidelines.

There are very many different Tango icons though, so there's a nice app called "Tango-generator" which can generate a complete and good-looking icon set.

And there's Oxygen, used in KDE4. Oxygen is glossy, more "photograph" like, and looks a bit like OS X and Vista. It's eyecandy. I don't like it because it's distracts the eye a bit too much, makes you thinking more of the icon before you know what it represents. Since they're so detailed, glossy etc, they're just harder to remember and identify. Most people like this kind of guidelines though.

And of course, there's all the icons you find on gnome-look.org. Many there uses (some of) the Tango guidelines, but there's a lot which is a copy of Vista or OS X. The best are those which is completely srlof-made though.

Maybe you could spot a default Linux desktop, but a customized to look like OS X or Vista, it can be possible if you take some effort into it.

[bingoUV]

If non-linux is your only criterion for liking some icons, you might as well not use linux. Because even if some strange icons are made for linux, they will become 'linux' icons and hence bad icons.

[davbren]

I spose I sorta see that logic. I use linux coz I enjoy using it and its the best solution to my needs. I however am slightly disappointed with the look of linux in general. I haven't seen a flavour of linux that genuinely looks nice from the off. I'm not trying to criticize the designers, as I said, I'm not one. However, with vista getting the 'Wow' factor (although arguable ) and apple always pulling out all the stops, i really think its time that linux looked good. It is true that the linux desktop effects are by far the best around. This is a great start, but now we need to concentrate on some really good themes.

As I said before I'm using elemental icons, which are nice for the most part. But I'm not sure the green arrows work. They remind me of xp. I'm also using and aurora gtk theme which is ok but still lacking "something" and finally the emerald theme I'm using blended aurora with a couple of colour changes.

For the most part I'm happy with this but surely together we can come up with a set thats really gd that a lot of us can be happy with (in terms of eyecandy as I understand that the practicality side is pwned by tango)

[DaymItzJack]

What wrong with Linux!? If you're going to use Ubuntu or any other operating system, why is the first thing you do is make it look different? I'm using Ubuntu, I don't want my computer to look like a Mac or Vista.