Sick of the Mac OSX look.

[Lord Illidan]

Everyone knows how ubitiquous the Mac OSX look is today. Those shiny buttons, the white and blue interface, etc, etc.

And then you see dozens of distros striving to copy this look. You have Fox Linux, Dream Linux, and probably dozens of others that come out of the box dressed in a Mac theme.

Why, why, why? Why should we be so reluctant to develop our own look and feel? Just look at Ubuntu, Suse, Zenwalk, Fedora, they have all developed their own themes. They are instantly recognisable.

But look at Fox Linux or Dream Linux, and you'll think that you are using a Mac, ok, probably not a bad thing. But it is not a Mac, it is Linux. And what comes to my mind is the sheer lack of unoriginality of the devs who persist in dressing up their OSes like that.

The Mac theme is too shiny for words. It strains my eyes... then I look at the caramel Ubuntu theme, the sleek zen look of Zenwalk, the cool blue of Suse and Fedora...I know which one I would pick in a second.

Rant over... Who else feels like me?

[Horizon]

I agree. These guys obviously don't take much pride in their work.
(No, that wasn't sarcasm). But at the end of the day it's their choice. It's their choice if they want to pretend to be a drop-in replacement of osx and it's their choice if they want to mislead people.

[GoA]

For my opinion Windows Vista and MacOsX just look better than any linux theme. They spend a lot of money to develop the user enviroment, themes and fonts. I believe that this is a one big reason for copying them.

[manicka]

:p

Edit: by RAV TUX...reason large image broke the forum layout...please see the original image below.

[bruce89]

That's a lot of programs running, as far as I know. It's too blue for me anyway.

[Lord Illidan]

To manicka :

BLURGHH!! :)

Seriously, I find the browns of Ubuntu far more productive.

[prizrak]

For my opinion Windows Vista and MacOsX just look better than any linux theme. They spend a lot of money to develop the user enviroment, themes and fonts. I believe that this is a one big reason for copying them.

While I might not agree that doesn't excuse imitation. I like the Dapper look, if the problem is just fonts and colors and 3D looking bars and the shiny that all can be worked on. While sure Vista and OSX look very slick there is no reason not to have a Linux theme looking slick w/o having to imitate anyone else. If the fonts are ugly - work on the fonts, if the colors aren't crisp and clear enough - work on the colors, smooth the edges, work on XGL and so on and so forth (not you specifically just in general). It is possible to be original and still look good it doesn't have to be the same crap as everyone else.

[Lord Illidan]

While I might not agree that doesn't excuse imitation. I like the Dapper look, if the problem is just fonts and colors and 3D looking bars and the shiny that all can be worked on. While sure Vista and OSX look very slick there is no reason not to have a Linux theme looking slick w/o having to imitate anyone else. If the fonts are ugly - work on the fonts, if the colors aren't crisp and clear enough - work on the colors, smooth the edges, work on XGL and so on and so forth (not you specifically just in general). It is possible to be original and still look good it doesn't have to be the same crap as everyone else.

That was what I was trying to communicate all along. :D

[weekend warrior]

Originally Posted by Lord Illidan
The Mac theme is too shiny for words. It strains my eyes...
Very true, Apple is to blame to a far greater degree than others for inflicting pain with their default look and making the "aqua look" popular. Bright, shiny white and high contrast is a huge strain on the eyes. If you value your eyesight, never ever use a theme like that for extended lengths of time if you can possibly avoid it.

Ironically the old monochrome look with black background and luminous text is better healthwise for the eyes than the bright white most people suffer nowadays.

manicka, that's a nice background, could you give us a link?



EDIT: That's also a subtle hint for the forum layout :( >> Bright light! bright light!! = :twisted:

[atrus123]

OSX is inflexible and boring.

I love showing Apple users my compiz/xgl desktop. Their mouths always drop. Many are astounded that they can no longer claim top-dog spot in the desktop eye-candy department now that xgl has matured.

[FISHERMAN]

I love the Mac look, but only on a Mac. All those wannabe Mac look-a-like don't even come close to the original and are pretty pathetic.

But people are free to choose their favorite theme and most people, including me, change the default theme(although I do not choose a Mac-theme)?

[Lord Illidan]

I love the Mac look, but only on a Mac. All those wannabe Mac look-a-like don't even come close to the original and are pretty pathetic.

But people are free to choose their favorite theme and most people, including me, change the default theme(although I do not choose a Mac-theme)?

I have no probs with people changing the default theme, I have probs with the default theme being something so obviously out of phase with linux. It is as like we are ashamed of ourselves or something.
And as FISHERMAN says, most of these themes look ugly. they lack in many ways. If you want a Mac, get a MAC!!

[ArizonaKid]

That's a lot of programs running, as far as I know. It's too blue for me anyway.

Kubuntu is also blue :D

[Lord Illidan]

Kubuntu is also blue :D
Aye, there was a thread around here about it.

[bruce89]

Kubuntu is also blue :D

That's why I don't like it.

[Lord Illidan]

That's why I don't like it.

You can change the colours, you know...I made mine identical to Dapper..looks great, anyway let's not get this sidetracked

[patrick295767]

For my opinion Windows Vista and MacOsX just look better than any linux theme. They spend a lot of money to develop the user enviroment, themes and fonts. I believe that this is a one big reason for copying them.

You 're right Indeed. They always were the first most of the time.
I am experiencing Fvwm desktop, and I daily realize that with this environment, fvwm, we can create anything we want.
I think that the great advantage, just programing few lines and that's done, anythgin we could dream ! I am not sure if it's sooo possible with Mac OS X (we forget *******, there is no hopes for this OS... btw, can it be called OS ? :) :) )
Fvwm themes (http://fvwm.lair.be/viewforum.php?f=39)
Give us ideas, that's the only thing we need & lack, then, we can work on it & make it (for you also) !
(Has Mac OS X ; metisse, xgl , so much flexibility ... ? videos + screenshots here (http://dev.gentoo.org/~taviso/screenshots/metisse/?C=S;O=A) )


The expose, the dashboard, dynamic menus, ... everthg can be done as in Mac OS X and even more. Let's free your mind, join fvwm community & help us with yoru ideeas & creativity for making Linux having the greatest Environment for leisure or for work !!

Cheers

[bruce89]

You can change the colours, you know...I made mine identical to Dapper..looks great, anyway let's not get this sidetracked

It was really just a nice way of saying I don't like KDE.

Trying to emulate Windows and MacOS X all the time makes people believe that Linux is just copying, instead of the real innovation that comes out of it. That is why Linspire is stupid. (IMHO)

[kazuya]

I believe these are all opinions. I like the whole ability to make a MAC OSX look or win vista look. And those distros that do so and allow for such ease to customize and immitate the look of other distros are awesome.

I started off wanting to get OSX like look, not VISTA., because OSX was simply beautiful to watch or behold. But Ask me to choose, even if money was not a factor and something like Ubuntu dapper would always win over. Because in Ubuntu and other linux distros, you are afforded the ability to change your themes and superficial look of your desktop to whatever you choose. I can boot into e16 one moment, to kde, to xfce, to gnome, to fluxbox {I love the simplicity here}, icewm, etc.. Whereas in Mac OSX or VISTA, the look is mostly the same in terms of same philosophy of the desktop. On linux, I can theme and change my OS into whatever I choose. This is innovation.

I disagree with folks saying just innovate things and not use what is already out there. I love the option to use whatever is out there like OSX or VISTA{not that I care for this one} and yet be able to switch or use other themes. I can show a win user my PC and my ability to be win like in looks anyway {icewm}, mac like, many others.., but the other users of these OSes {win and OSX} find it hard to emulate linux desktops.

All of the OSes and distros innovate each other. The end user , us as users lead developers to innovate our computing environments. As of this point int time, I find it easier and more liberating working in a linux environment than in any other OS including Mac OSX tiger and windows.

I for example cannot stand the look of windows or the restrictive feeling I get while in that OS. This may just be a subjective opinion. Other folks prefer windows rendering of multimedia and pages to linux. I do not. Dapper with its orange look and even the brown look greatly appealed to me.

This theming and goofing time with changing the look of linux is due boredom from not having the spyware, virus, and malware siisues that used to take most of my time. So to prevent risk of these things I could not tap into my true internet habits or likes.

I tried dreamlinux and the likes. They were all nice, but having ready access to four desktops and ease of tweaking to something more comfortable for my eyes I did not get.

So forgive my rant. I just say everyone is entitled to what they prefer. The OSX look thing was good, because it assisted me in making my desktop into something more beautiful in my opinion than OSX or Vista.. {This again is my opinion}.

My wife hardly ever uses the win machine again for example, and my mom and bro totally ignore the windows machine and use the ubuntu machine for downloading surfing the web, etc, because of the speed, reliability and lack of pop ups experience on that PC. Now potentially so as to cut down their hogging of PC times, I may need to convert their Dell Win PC into a dual-boot PC with Ubuntu on one end. Gaming is the main thing my brother still utilizes the Dell box for.

The emachine with Dapper or the very old xandros 3 PCs are what they use most now.

[Brunellus]

shiny is hip.

I have compiz/xgl on my main ubuntu box, but for most uses, I actually prefer fluxbox. the minimal windowmanagers certainly broadcast "I'M NOT RUNNING WINDOWS OR MAC" to me.

[hizaguchi]

I agree on the immitation point. I actually like the look of OSX (especially the screenshot above) but it really burns me when I see a Linux distro trying, and miserably failing, to pull off the same look. It's 1 part unorinallity and 2 parts plain ugly.

The main problem though is the reasoning behind the appearance. OSX looking the way it does increases its functionallity for its target audience, people who just want to point and click. It makes the icons big and puts them where you can see them so that a lobotomized snail could use the interface. This isn't the most efficient desktop for an experienced computer user, but it is pretty and straightforward. It's the 1 speed go-kart of desktop environments. That's fine for grandma or your little sister, but I'm often running several apps on several desktops, and when I need to sift through them quickly a plain old taskbar is still the best way to go. The same applies to sorting though tons of applications. In OSX, if it doesn't fit on the dock you have to open the file manager and find the binary. What was wrong with a cascading menu?

[Derek Djons]

I actually do not see a problem here. Why reinvent the wheel when it has been invented already.

The Mac OS X theme isn't being copied just because it's cool and Apple is hot. No. In reality it's a very calm and peaceful theme. It doesn't hurts the eyes, it isn't to busy, it's calm and neutral.

There are a lot of other themes available, just mouse clicks away whether you use Ubuntu Linux or SuSE.

[MetalMusicAddict]

I was once very into the OSX look. I was a regular @ Aqua-Soft (http://www.aqua-soft.org/) a OSX emu/art site. I got out of it but still lurk for the awesome art that shows up there. :)

Anymore I lust love the look of their hardware. The new Macbooks are great looking machines.

[manicka]

The new Macbooks are great looking machines.

True that :)

[Lord Illidan]

Aye, until they explode on you!![-X

[Adamant1988]

I prefer the gnome integration of Fedora RedHat Suse and Ubuntu to Mac OSX anyway.

Give me twin panels any day. (or 1 panel in the case of Suse).

[manicka]

Aye, until they explode on you!![-X

bah, how many times can one set of photos get around

[Lord Illidan]

bah, how many times can one set of photos get around

Hehe...:-({|=

[Mr.Auer]

Well..I have to say that imho my customized desktop looks far better than any Mac OSx one..even thou i DID copy one thing..the window buttons :) but thats it..I like it simple and useful..with all Compiz goodness of course, which adds the good things from OSX (namely expose), but then again, Compiz has many functions OSX doesnt have..

See for yourself ;)

[fuscia]

i can't tell one mac inspired theme from another. it's like looking at a hundred 25 watt lightbulbs and trying to figure out which one is the brightest.

[manicka]

i can't tell one mac inspired theme from another. it's like looking at a hundred 25 watt lightbulbs and trying to figure out which one is the brightest.

hehe, I tend to agree. when I'm using os x I'm happy for it to look like os x, but when I use Linux I want it clean and simple and looking like Linux (whatever that means ;) ). In short, why you'd want an OS to look like an OS it isn't, is beyond me.

[prizrak]

Well..I have to say that imho my customized desktop looks far better than any Mac OSx one..even thou i DID copy one thing..the window buttons :) but thats it..I like it simple and useful..with all Compiz goodness of course, which adds the good things from OSX (namely expose), but then again, Compiz has many functions OSX doesnt have..

See for yourself ;)

A very nice and minimalistic theme, leaves you with the most amount of workspace :)

[Ptero-4]

hehe, I tend to agree. when I'm using os x I'm happy for it to look like os x, but when I use Linux I want it clean and simple and looking like Linux (whatever that means ;) ). In short, why you'd want an OS to look like an OS it isn't, is beyond me.

Actually manicka. The thing with linux is that it doesn`t have such a thing as a ¨standard look¨ like ******* and OSX do, it`s the user who decides how his/her desktop looks.



That's a lot of programs running, as far as I know. It's too blue for me anyway.

bruce. In the screenshots there are only seven apps running (running apps have black triangles pointing to their icons), the rest are apps that are docked but not running.



OSX is inflexible and boring. I love showing Apple users my compiz/xgl desktop. Their mouths always drop. Many are astounded that they can no longer claim top-dog spot in the desktop eye-candy department now that xgl has matured.

Actually, both OSX and Linux are ¨top-dog¨ in eye-candy (at least now that leopard is almost there), the one that is generations behind is ¨Vista¨.



I have no probs with people changing the default theme, I have probs with the default theme being something so obviously out of phase with linux. It is as like we are ashamed of ourselves or something.
And as FISHERMAN says, most of these themes look ugly. they lack in many ways. If you want a Mac, get a MAC!!

Lord Illidan. What about those who own a Mac and like the aqua style but prefer linux over OSX because of the fact that OSX isn`t free (OSS and customizable)? I ask because that`s my case.

[RAV TUX]

Everyone knows how ubitiquous the Mac OSX look is today. Those shiny buttons, the white and blue interface, etc, etc.

And then you see dozens of distros striving to copy this look. You have Fox Linux, Dream Linux, and probably dozens of others that come out of the box dressed in a Mac theme.

Why, why, why? Why should we be so reluctant to develop our own look and feel? Just look at Ubuntu, Suse, Zenwalk, Fedora, they have all developed their own themes. They are instantly recognisable.

But look at Fox Linux or Dream Linux, and you'll think that you are using a Mac, ok, probably not a bad thing. But it is not a Mac, it is Linux. And what comes to my mind is the sheer lack of unoriginality of the devs who persist in dressing up their OSes like that.

The Mac theme is too shiny for words. It strains my eyes... then I look at the caramel Ubuntu theme, the sleek zen look of Zenwalk, the cool blue of Suse and Fedora...I know which one I would pick in a second.

Rant over... Who else feels like me?

+1

(The Mac theme just makes me nauseous and sick...I guess since I had to use the crappy OS at my former work place for years...it is a lot like a 6 year old eating too much candy and it simply makes you want to barf...the only thing I can think of when I see a Mac theme or have to use a Mac is how they take full advantage of slave-like labor in China...the hypocrisy is sickening!...at least with Linux we can recycle old Windows and Mac computers, save the environment and not have blood on our hands.)

ok rant over.

[RAV TUX]

+1

(The Mac theme just makes me nauseous and sick...I guess since I had to use the crappy OS at my former work place for years...it is a lot like a 6 year old eating too much candy and it simply makes you want to barf...the only thing I can think of when I see a Mac theme or have to use a Mac is how they take full advantage of slave-like labor in China...the hypocrisy is sickening!...at least with Linux we can recycle old Windows and Mac computers, save the environment and not have blood on our hands.)

ok rant over.

I prefer a very minimalistic black & white desktop in Sabayon, using KDE, and Beryl...see below...(panels on autohide)

[Mateo]

don't like the mac look? don't install dreamlinux. There, problem solved. Freedom is wonderful.

[RAV TUX]

don't like the mac look? don't install dreamlinux. There, problem solved. Freedom is wonderful.exactly.

[sloggerkhan]

I've got a really cool looking (imo) beryl theme going on my install for screwing around. But I find that I still prefer regular gnome most of the time.
I like the expose style beryl features and I like the live window previews when you alt-tab, but when it comes down to it, most of bery in really cool, but also really pointless.
Definately not big on copying the mac themes.

[Macintosh Sauce]

I kind of like the Mac OS X user interface, and I think my Desktop looks nice. Note that I want to get work done, and not play with my screen spinning about.

http://www.seascape.us/jrhodes/macdesktop-small.png (http://www.seascape.us/jrhodes/macdesktop.png)

The nice thing about having an Intel-based Mac is that I can run Linux inside Parallels for Mac software and still have the best OS out there: Mac OS X. I can also boot natively into Windows XP Pro with Boot Camp software to play all of my Windows XP-based games.

[hanzomon4]

I prefer a very minimalistic black & white desktop in Sabayon, using KDE, and Beryl...see below...(panels on autohide)

Nice, I got a good brown murrina theme on my feisty install(I'll post a screen shot later). However I like the mac look and I like the themes people have made for the mac like shinobi.

And beryl/compiz has more then just the scale effect for usability, tab and grouper is one that comes to mind as well as switcher and ring-switcher and have you all tried the wall?

[macogw]

I hate OSX. Darned menus go all away from windows and get confusing and not-find-able grrrr

and too much white! I don't like staring at light bulbs all day, do you?

[macogw]

shiny is hip.

I have compiz/xgl on my main ubuntu box, but for most uses, I actually prefer fluxbox. the minimal windowmanagers certainly broadcast "I'M NOT RUNNING WINDOWS OR MAC" to me.

I like using Fluxbox if I'm in an internet cafe for that reason :D Change volume with alsa-mixer in the terminal? Someone comes up going "ok, I gotta ask....WHAT are you USING?"

[spockrock]

I agree with macgow that I hate how the menus are not on the windows its so annoying, and frustrating, however I do not mind the white theme.......the brushed metal looks ugly though.

[hanzomon4]

Here's my feisty ubuntu theme I like it more then my edgy osx theme.

[RAV TUX]

have you all tried the wall?

The wall?...I haven't tried the wall...

[hanzomon4]

It's an alternative to the cube and it has an expose like trick that lets you drag windows easily to other workspaces.....

Edit: I didn't know you could set the wall to a 2x2 setup...

[sloggerkhan]

I dislike the MacOS look, but I hate the new system menu even more.

[Choad]

clearly, "scaled black mod" enerald theme + silicon gtk widget theme + snowish gtk icon theme = pure sex

i have never been happier with the appearance of my computer. mac osX makes me feel ill. it is so obnoxiously shiny.

[3rdalbum]

I probably wouldn't mind Apple's Aqua look, as long as all Apple's programs used the same theme so your desktop wasn't a mixture of aqua and brushed metal.

Personally, I think it's counterproductive to have a distribution that just tries to mimic the exact look of another operating system. It's probably more likely to confuse new users - a Mac user trying Dreamlinux may assume that the rest of the operating system is as much like OS X as the theme is.

When I chose the theme for my Copland distribution (where the layout of the desktop mimics OS 9), I made sure that the theme was distinctive. The only reason that the desktop layout is like OS 9 is because many potential Linux converts are working on old Macintoshes, and this may attract them somewhat. I saw no point in using a low-performance theme.

If you want to see an attractive theme that doesn't depend on white or brushed metal, take a look at the theme in Linux Mint Bianca.

[hanzomon4]

I agree that linux lacks a "theme" because it so customizable it could literally look like anything.

[SunnyRabbiera]

I like the way that linux is open so you can make it look as you wish.
But I do often dress my ubuntu up in a very Mac OSX look, I do favor it but its all a matter of personal taste.

[Adamant1988]

Everyone knows how ubitiquous the Mac OSX look is today. Those shiny buttons, the white and blue interface, etc, etc.

And then you see dozens of distros striving to copy this look. You have Fox Linux, Dream Linux, and probably dozens of others that come out of the box dressed in a Mac theme.

Why, why, why? Why should we be so reluctant to develop our own look and feel? Just look at Ubuntu, Suse, Zenwalk, Fedora, they have all developed their own themes. They are instantly recognisable.

But look at Fox Linux or Dream Linux, and you'll think that you are using a Mac, ok, probably not a bad thing. But it is not a Mac, it is Linux. And what comes to my mind is the sheer lack of unoriginality of the devs who persist in dressing up their OSes like that.

The Mac theme is too shiny for words. It strains my eyes... then I look at the caramel Ubuntu theme, the sleek zen look of Zenwalk, the cool blue of Suse and Fedora...I know which one I would pick in a second.

Rant over... Who else feels like me?

Please, why do almost all KDE distributions look alike for the desktop? (That double thick kicker bar, most KDE distributions look like they were made by playskool)

Why do all gnome distributions look alike for the desktop? (two drab-grey bars. how exciting)

I want a unique and interesting desktop right off the bat. Instead of providing that for us most linux distributions feel content to give us a different button and window theme, and leave us with the same basic ugly building blocks that gnome and KDE start us with. Mac OS X, by far, is the most unique looking desktop I've had the pleasure to use.

The point I'm trying to get at is, well, people are lazy. Coming up with fresh ideas takes some degree of work, coming up with incredible looking themes and styles isn't really that easy. I would kill to start up a default gnome-ubuntu and not be seeing two boring grey bars. I would kill to start up a default KDE install and not see that hideous double thick bar staring me in the face. People will do the bare minimum that their imagination allows, be it adding to gnome and KDE to make them look decent, or just copying a style idea from another OS. These developers seem to be far less interested in aesthetics than you or I.

[FyreBrand]

Here's my feisty ubuntu theme I like it more then my edgy osx theme.Your desktop looks really nice. So is the wall a beryl or compiz setting or is it an entirely separate application? I like that idea. I have started experimenting using the slide feature in beryl instead of the cube. I kind of like it.


I dont really like Mac themes but I do like a few of the ideas such as translucent menu panels. I don't like too much of the synthetic look and it's too bright and shiny. I do use the macbird theme in firefox though because it's a nice minimal look and not too "Mackie".

[hanzomon4]

It's a beryl svn(?) plugin it might be in compiz but I'm not to sure.

@Adamant1988 I agree,
Themes and wallpapers don't really change the environment significantly. I think the appeal of apple's theme is less about the theme and more about the whole desktop package(aqua?). When ever I think about the linux desktop it looks more like puzzle pieces then a distinct package. I'm not sure if such a package could be done by just the distro but I think thats what some want, Ubuntu(or distro-whatever) and not just another gnome.

[CCBalla10]

Everyone knows how ubitiquous the Mac OSX look is today. Those shiny buttons, the white and blue interface, etc, etc.

And then you see dozens of distros striving to copy this look. You have Fox Linux, Dream Linux, and probably dozens of others that come out of the box dressed in a Mac theme.

Why, why, why? Why should we be so reluctant to develop our own look and feel? Just look at Ubuntu, Suse, Zenwalk, Fedora, they have all developed their own themes. They are instantly recognisable.

But look at Fox Linux or Dream Linux, and you'll think that you are using a Mac, ok, probably not a bad thing. But it is not a Mac, it is Linux. And what comes to my mind is the sheer lack of unoriginality of the devs who persist in dressing up their OSes like that.

The Mac theme is too shiny for words. It strains my eyes... then I look at the caramel Ubuntu theme, the sleek zen look of Zenwalk, the cool blue of Suse and Fedora...I know which one I would pick in a second.

Rant over... Who else feels like me?

I guess I do not understand why this is even anything to talk about???? You do not have to work on someone else's computer, so why do you care what it looks like? seriously!? The reason why I have the mac close, minimize buttons on my left is because I think it is a lot easier to use. As for the mac theme...I stayed away from the blues and whites, and went with black. But as for me, I could care less what other ppl. like on their desktop. Anything linux is better than ******* and macs....so hurray for linux!

[nolageek]

This is the silliest debate EVAR. I see this over and over. People slag one OS's theme and then post a screenshot that basically looks EXACTLY the same except with new, smaller icons and maybe they're on the other side of the screen. Maybe different wallpaper.

Gee, your dock is on the side instead of on the bottom.. it's a revolutionary new theme, light years beyond OSX.

It makes me wonder if they've even used a Mac. You know you can change the size of the icons and move the doc placement to the top, left, right, etc.. you can even... CHANGE WALLPAPER!

There's even a Mac theme that's styled after Ubuntu.

http://interfacelift.com/themes-mac/details.php?id=176


These are non-issues.. I dont see how this went 6 pages. :)

[red_Marvin]

Why do all gnome distributions look alike for the desktop? (two drab-grey bars. how exciting)

I want a unique and interesting desktop right off the bat. Instead of providing that for us most linux distributions feel content to give us a different button and window theme, and leave us with the same basic ugly building blocks that gnome and KDE start us with. Mac OS X, by far, is the most unique looking desktop I've had the pleasure to use.

Because the more specialized theme you ship it with the narrower the approving audience gets. = You are ******* off more people than you please.
People might have vastly different thoughts on what a really good and a really bad desktop is, but most can agree on a usable neutral desktop that fit's all even if they all think it's boring.

[Adamant1988]

Because the more specialized theme you ship it with the narrower the approving audience gets. = You are ******* off more people than you please.
People might have vastly different thoughts on what a really good and a really bad desktop is, but most can agree on a usable neutral desktop that fit's all even if they all think it's boring.

Making minor improvements to the interface is hardly going to upset anyone. Hell, I'd kill if they would use silver and slick over grey and drab. I doubt anyone else would notice. I personally prefer black and slick, but giving me an attractive and neutral desktop off the bat is a good place to start. Not boring and neutral. You're making this sell based on screen shots, you're saying "Look how functional and great our distribution is by screen shot" and you know what's in that screen shot? NOTHING NEW. Stock KDE/Gnome, maybe some different looking buttons, and Oh-My the windows border is different!

"Oh dear, I love that button theme so much, I just must have that OS" No, that's hardly anything convincing at all. If your OS isn't as pleasing to the eye as it is functional you're losing out on more customers than you would lose out on by making minor aesthetic adjustments. Look at openSUSE 10.2 who's mad about what they've done to KDE? Everyone I've asked agrees that the main reason they're not using it is either a personal disdain for Novell or a dislike of their package management system, but they would all LOVE to use the menus and eye-candy that Novell offers.

The last thing that a Linux distribution needs is to be associated with the word "boring", in a world where aesthetics on the desktop are becoming more important to the user.

[jcconnor]

[QUOTE=
Ironically the old monochrome look with black background and luminous text is better healthwise for the eyes than the bright white most people suffer nowadays.

[/QUOTE]

I read some where (it was probably produced by the optometry industry) that people read text better and retain it more if they are reading it as black text on a white background. Something about the conditioning that we have received from reading paper docs.

And the paper industry spends millions of dollars producing bright white paper because people prefer it for paper based docs. Also, if you'll notice even recycled "copy/print" paper has much less recycled content than stuff like paper towels and napkins. It's because the paper industry can't get it as white and people tend not to buy it.

[Brunellus]

I read some where (it was probably produced by the optometry industry) that people read text better and retain it more if they are reading it as black text on a white background. Something about the conditioning that we have received from reading paper docs.

And the paper industry spends millions of dollars producing bright white paper because people prefer it for paper based docs. Also, if you'll notice even recycled "copy/print" paper has much less recycled content than stuff like paper towels and napkins. It's because the paper industry can't get it as white and people tend not to buy it.
Personally, I pick up more on contrast, which is conveyed differently for screens than on paper.

On a screen, I want my background to be dark and my content to be bright. I find this strains my eyes less. I misspent my youth on MS-DOS, and so I'm no stranger to darkened basements and flickering phosphorus.

Then again, on paper, I want my letters to be nice and dark and my paper stock to be reasonably bright.

I think it may have something to do with how we see screens as opposed to papers. Screens have their own illumination built-in, so staring at a largely white screen is almost the same as staring at a lightbox of equal size. To compensate, we have to turn down the total brigthness and try to increase the contrast for black-on-white displays.

Paper, however, doesn't shine; it depends on the light that falls on it for illumination. The light we get off a sheet of paper is much more diffuse.

[red_Marvin]

Adamant1988: Yeah it's no harm in using a smooth button theme instead of win 95 90 degree sharp corners.
I might have exaggerated the changes you implied.

[Brunellus]

Adamant1988: Yeah it's no harm in using a smooth button theme instead of win 95 90 degree sharp corners.
I might have exaggerated the changes you implied.
corners? you wanted corners?

here's some CDE:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d8/Solaris8-cde.png

[jdonat]

I think we all went through a blinding-white-OSX theme phase, pretty damn sick of it now.
time for the black-as-midnight phase !


http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/4045/newdtkx8.th.png (http://img408.imageshack.us/my.php?image=newdtkx8.png)