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View Full Version : Don't you think the default desktop is a bit dull?



jnoreiko
February 5th, 2005, 07:46 PM
Ubuntu has a really nice visual identity, with the logo, the colour scheme etc.
It's used on the login screen, but then when you get to the desktop it's a bit bland -- it just all looks brown :( I was expecting something a bit more lively!

I think the Hoary should use the pale orange that's on the CD cover or the bright oranges from the logo.

Titeuf
February 5th, 2005, 10:59 PM
I like how the default looks. It's really clean and nice.

BWF89
February 5th, 2005, 11:01 PM
I agree. First impressions are everything. The defult desktop should have bright colors and the Ubuntu symbol.

eBopBob
February 5th, 2005, 11:20 PM
TBH, I have to agree, that I do think the default desktop for Ubuntu could be a bit more lively - Although I must also say, it does not take very long to make it look nice and lively. Just a minute or two on the Internet downloading d3a GTK+ theme and icons, install and use them, and you've a great looking system.

However, then there comes in... first impressions are everything. Does the default system leave a good impression? I've passed it [Ubuntu] to a few people - and all have said that it does not look very good from default. One does not like Gnome at all (He prefers KDE), and the default look did not make him like Ubuntu/Gnome much at all.

carlc
February 6th, 2005, 12:15 AM
I love the disto but was not impressed with the overall look and color scheme of the desktop. I doubt my preference would represent many people but the look of the deskop probably does deserve a second thought.

Yukonjack
February 6th, 2005, 05:52 AM
I think Ubuntu desktop is just fine the way it is. A few downloads and a few minutes and you have the desktop you want.
Way better this way, I ratter add to my desktop then take stuff out and then add. Keep it nice and simple and let the folks do what they want, that is the freedom of gnu/linux, choices. Just because one would like to have a pulple wallpaper with funky icons that looks like puffy pinguins it doesn't mean the next person will like that. It is very hard to please everyone almost impossible, with a basic and clean desktop you make it easy for folks to do as they please and add to there desktop till no tommorrow. I have seen enough crappy desktop loaded with flash and stuff that makes me puke over the years it is nice to boot in Ubuntu for the first time, wow no crap. 8-)

CowPie
February 6th, 2005, 06:12 AM
Ubuntu has a really nice visual identity, with the logo, the colour scheme etc.
It's used on the login screen, but then when you get to the desktop it's a bit bland -- it just all looks brown :( I was expecting something a bit more lively!

I think the Hoary should use the pale orange that's on the CD cover or the bright oranges from the logo.

Yep! The human theme is too harsh.

I remedy this with Gnursid: http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=19088

And Jake's wallpapers: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=8287

drmagoo
February 6th, 2005, 06:35 AM
I think Ubuntu desktop is just fine the way it is. A few downloads and a few minutes and you have the desktop you want.
Way better this way, I ratter add to my desktop then take stuff out and then add. Keep it nice and simple and let the folks do what they want, that is the freedom of gnu/linux, choices. Just because one would like to have a pulple wallpaper with funky icons that looks like puffy pinguins it doesn't mean the next person will like that. It is very hard to please everyone almost impossible, with a basic and clean desktop you make it easy for folks to do as they please and add to there desktop till no tommorrow. I have seen enough crappy desktop loaded with flash and stuff that makes me puke over the years it is nice to boot in Ubuntu for the first time, wow no crap. 8-)


Agreed. I added a delightful wallpaper from art section of this forum, giving my desktop a look I like. Haven't had to turf anything.

kassetra
February 6th, 2005, 06:45 AM
After dealing with the "desktops" that SuSE installed for me ... ooh look, I chose Gnome as my desktop and yet I have a KDE desktop with children's icons, 40 applications just for using a terminal and all kinds of extraneous crap that I had to go through to "clean up" the desktop (so I could SEE it!) and menus ... Ubuntu was a complete and total refreshment for my wearied OS soul.

When I first booted into Ubuntu and it played that delightful little tune and showed me a CLEAN and well-organized desktop/menu ... It looked completely and totally professional, not like some hyperactive fanatic monkeys were shoving the greatness of linux down my throat.

I hope they NEVER change the default desktop.

Dylanby
February 6th, 2005, 06:48 AM
IMHO the default desktop should be subtle & "transparent".
Most people will tweak the look to their taste anyway.

I think it would be a mistake to try & make it "pop" with too many colours & risk making it garish.

The one default I would change would be the wallpaper.

Jad
February 6th, 2005, 07:24 AM
Thanks for the links CowPie

miho
February 6th, 2005, 07:31 AM
Ubuntu came with many themes to switch to. I'm using Industrial but I downloaded a great theme that looks almost like OS X.

wulf
February 6th, 2005, 10:02 AM
I agree with keeping it simple. Playing around with themes and backgrounds is easy and gives you a quick sense of accomplishment, reminding you that Ubuntu is your home, so you can decorate it how you like.

Wulf

mark
February 6th, 2005, 02:56 PM
Dull is good...I can live with dull. Some of the other distros I've tried come up looking like a deranged game console on amphetamines - no, thanks. I spend 'way too much time in front of my computer to have it visually assault me.

Tweaking your desktop is also good. It all comes back to a matter of choice...

MaZiNgA
February 6th, 2005, 03:17 PM
I like the current desktop but I second that a bit more lively colors would improve first impression. An idea would be to have xcompmgr / gdesklets by default (as vidalinux does)...

TravisNewman
February 6th, 2005, 03:50 PM
I like the current desktop but I second that a bit more lively colors would improve first impression. An idea would be to have xcompmgr / gdesklets by default (as vidalinux does)...
You have to be joking. Xcompmgr is VERY unstable (for some unusable) and you want to throw it ON by DEFAULT?

rudi
February 6th, 2005, 04:05 PM
I think the desktop is nice for it's simplicity, except that i don't like the brown color. If there are different color versions i think i would keep the default. Icon theme is great also, except for the brown again. The logo colors are great, if they did something with that......

jdodson
February 6th, 2005, 06:51 PM
the desktop drabness is a theme change away....

i don't mind the default, now i changed it on my system, but i don't mind it.

Sye d'Burns
February 6th, 2005, 08:20 PM
I think it would be a mistake to try & make it "pop" with too many colours & risk making it garish.


I have to agree. I think Ubuntu provides a mellow desktop that's easy on the eyes. I find the human theme, like the distro, 'just works.' It's not going to win any design awards but it's certainly functional without being garish (I love that word.)

The default brown background may be a little dull, a burnt orange or something similiar might be better. I ended up taking the background from the Tobacco Sky GDM theme (http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=18178) at gnome-look.org and using it with the human theme. I do like the sky, Ubuntu orange. =D>

rudi
February 6th, 2005, 08:30 PM
I ended up taking the background from the Tobacco Sky GDM theme (http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=18178) at gnome-look.org and using it with the human theme. I do like the sky, Ubuntu orange. =D>LOL me to! :-D

MaZiNgA
February 6th, 2005, 09:40 PM
You have to be joking. Xcompmgr is VERY unstable (for some unusable) and you want to throw it ON by DEFAULT?
Yes, stupid idea I take it back... :p I realize there would be many problems
Still the backgound could be changed.
BTW I was wondering..is that cool MacOSX theme GPL'd?

Randabis
February 6th, 2005, 10:06 PM
I just think the default background should be changed. It's doo doo brown ugliness. :/

jnoreiko
February 7th, 2005, 12:19 AM
Yeah, I definitely didn't mean put crud on the desktop, Ubuntu has a very nice uncluttered appearance.
It's just the colour scheme and the wallpaper I'm thinking of. The default should be set to something more welcoming -- after all, given how Ubuntu is being marketed, this might be the very first Linux desktop many people see (it was for me!)

Vidar
September 29th, 2005, 10:28 PM
Im all for a new and shiny default desktop. But stay with clearlooks (modified as the current human theme).

Goober
September 29th, 2005, 10:37 PM
It is nice and decluttered, but the colour scheme is a bit, well, anticlimatic for me. I really like the fact that it doesn't automatically come with a full desktop, icons everywhere. I like not having to get rid of useless icons, like I do when I do a clean install of *******, and uninstall all the stuff I don't want, then install what I want.

They could make it look a bit more visually appealing, but I think its fine. Maybe the blandness encourages us to be more creative to make it look nicer! I do wish Ubuntu included more wallpapers. I am just too lazy to google for them, then save them, then open it, I prefer just having a selection of, say, 10 random pics.

mstlyevil
September 29th, 2005, 10:43 PM
The first thing I do when installing Ubuntu is change all the default theme and walpaper settings. I just can not stand looking at that ugly brown theme and background. If the theme and background were a little more like the forums design, then I could live with it.

poofyhairguy
September 30th, 2005, 12:06 AM
I hope the wallpaper changes. Maybe the icons. The rest is nice.

Omnios
September 30th, 2005, 12:38 AM
No matter what they put there someone will go uggggllllly. Personaly I hate gray (overcast) yet every system seems to have it. Only thing I would do is tone it down a bit to more like a beach sand shade as beach sand is associated with relaxation and possibly woman lol.

manicka
September 30th, 2005, 12:40 AM
I like it just the way it is. The only thing I change is the background and icons.

cowlip
September 30th, 2005, 02:16 AM
I loved the prerealease Warty background-- it was blue and pretty :) It's just ever since hoary it's been pretty ugly.

andlinux21
September 30th, 2005, 02:19 AM
I like the default desktop but I would change the wallpaper :)

Cirkus
September 30th, 2005, 02:24 AM
I like the wallpaper, in fact it's the only part of the default theme I kept.

The default theme is dull; but it has to be in order to appeal to the most people. I think that it would be a good idea if Ubuntu threw a contest where everyone submitted themes (like a raver theme, and a hip hop theme and a movie theme, etc etc) and the ones that were voted the best went into the distribution.

That way you'd have the nice, pleasent-but-neutral default theme, but people would have exciting and unique themes to choose from, too.

DoeRayMe
September 30th, 2005, 02:24 AM
After dealing with the "desktops" that SuSE installed for me ... ooh look, I chose Gnome as my desktop and yet I have a KDE desktop with children's icons, 40 applications just for using a terminal and all kinds of extraneous crap that I had to go through to "clean up" the desktop (so I could SEE it!) and menus ... Ubuntu was a complete and total refreshment for my wearied OS soul.
When I first booted into Ubuntu and it played that delightful little tune and showed me a CLEAN and well-organized desktop/menu ... It looked completely and totally professional, not like some hyperactive fanatic monkeys were shoving the greatness of linux down my throat.
I hope they NEVER change the default desktop.

i agree 100%, who wants a cluttered menu and desktop? certainly not me ;)

Cirkus
September 30th, 2005, 02:27 AM
i agree 100%, who wants a cluttered menu and desktop? certainly not me ;)
Who likes having their decisions made for them? Not me ;) (of course I can always hunt stuff down; but it always annoys me to have to do so).

remin8
September 30th, 2005, 02:30 AM
I think that the subdued brown look is the way to go, however I don't like hoary's wallpaper. I am a big fan of warty's!!! Clean, simple and unobtrusive! I hope breazy takes that approach!

liquidtenmillion
September 30th, 2005, 02:39 AM
I love ubuntu's default theme and wallpaper. For me i'd have to say it's one of the best looking operating system i have ever used.
If you don't like it you can always change it to one of several hundred themes.
I just hate the silver, blue, white, and green looks that most operating systems come with today, and the black, orange, and red themes that most amatuers create. I like a grey, beige, and brown theme.
I'd say Dropline Gnome (http://droplinegnome.org) and Ubuntu's gnome are exactly what i want

Stormy Eyes
September 30th, 2005, 03:28 AM
Ubuntu's default brown doesn't do it for me, but I don't bother griping about it on the forums. I just change it. I spent more time snarling about Windows XP's Fisher-Price UI.

Cirkus
September 30th, 2005, 03:34 AM
Ubuntu's default brown doesn't do it for me, but I don't bother griping about it on the forums. I just change it. I spent more time snarling about Windows XP's Fisher-Price UI.
First thing I do any time I install XP:
|->control panel ->switch to 'classic view'
|----->display -> switch to 'classic windows'
|----------> start menu -> switch to classic start menu

ta-da, no more fisher-price UI ;)

poofyhairguy
September 30th, 2005, 03:41 AM
First thing I do any time I install XP:
|->control panel ->switch to 'classic view'
|----->display -> switch to 'classic windows'
|----------> start menu -> switch to classic start menu

ta-da, no more fisher-price UI ;)


yeah, but then when you want to use Windblind or whatever to make it look better than classic....things slow down.

NZ-Wanderer
September 30th, 2005, 04:48 AM
I had a little play and did some graphics editing, and here is the one that I use now :) :)

http://wanderer.jazweb.us/temp/screenshot-4.jpg

poofyhairguy
September 30th, 2005, 09:24 AM
I had a little play and did some graphics editing, and here is the one that I use now :) :)

http://wanderer.jazweb.us/temp/screenshot-4.jpg


You should submit that upstream.

NZ-Wanderer
September 30th, 2005, 12:42 PM
You should submit that upstream.

Hmm well I dunno about that, you see I copied the planet etc from one place, and sorta "borrowed" the logo from the top of the forum and mixed them together before altering the colours, so it's not really all my work...:rolleyes: :rolleyes:

brentoboy
September 30th, 2005, 01:05 PM
The only thing that needs to be changed is the backgound. you could dump the picture (no offence) and have a dark blue to brown vertical gradient. then you get "simple" and "pleasant" and "color" and a little reason to spice it up too.