One Good Reason Why Ubuntu Doesn't Look as Good as Suse...

[acelin]

Really what is a good reason? I dont get why a distro (Ubuntu) that has more users than all the other distros combined looks as bad as Ubuntu does. Why couldn't new themes, GDM's, fonts, icons have been implemented? I know that is what we are doing now, but I have this sinking feeling things that look really super nice wont go through.

Ubuntu just looks pathetic in comparison to Suse. Everything in Suse is so professional, from the boot screen, the live boot screen, the welcome screen, installation...

No. Ubuntu doesnt compare. It looks like Windows ME or something. When it comes to speed, Suse also came up much faster than Ubuntu does in the live cd on the same computer.

I want yalls opinion.

[Pasto]

I think Ubuntu looks great and polished.

[FuturePilot]

Appearance is perspective.

[inportb]

What's wrong with everything looking professional?

[acelin]

I think Ubuntu looks great and polished.

Hahahahaha

There was a poll around here I started, and in even in the biased Ubuntu forum over 2/3's of those polled though that OS's such as OS X, Vista, and proposals for a changed Ubuntu looked better.

[LaRoza]

It doesn't really matter, Ubuntu (et al) are easy to customize.

[Redrazor39]

I think it should look professional and I think it does matter. Most users won't want to have to customize it even if they can figure out how.

[acelin]

True LaRoza, but could someone fill me in on why the decision was made to leave Ubuntu with basically the same theme since the first release?

[vishzilla]

I think Ubuntu can look better. I just downloaded OpenSUSE 11 KDE4 live, looks slick. This release is lot better than 10.3.

Lets hope Ibex brings a welcome change in look

[LaRoza]

True LaRoza, but could someone fill me in on why the decision was made to leave Ubuntu with basically the same theme since the first release?

Because there are more important things to do?

Vista: 7 Years to make a new theme and raise system requirements and break compatibility

Ubuntu: 6 Months to improve hardware support, have functional applications by default, a live cd

I hear Intrepid will have a newer theme; Hardy is LTS, so I think they didn't want to work too much on the theme.

[LaRoza]

I think Ubuntu can look better. I just downloaded OpenSUSE 11 KDE4 live, looks slick. This release is lot better than 10.3.

Lets hope Ibex brings a welcome change in look

I just downloaded it last night (very slow going) and am going to install it on my laptop :-)

Hope it is as good as people say it is.

[kevin11951]

im not positive, but i remember reading in a few different places, that 8.10 is getting an extreme interface overhaul. so if im right, yay!:D:D:D:D

[acelin]

Ubuntu: 2 months to do all of this. They exist, why not make one a default before this point?

And that isnt true about Vista. I dont understand this FUD about Vista- I changed because it was better than XP. It doesnt crash, it only gets slow if you dont have enough ram. It has never BSOD'd on me. XP would have system32 errors all the time, and would lose my files. In those 5 years- XP came out in 01, Vista in late 06- Microsoft introduced an improved kernel, which does help with security. I have no anti-virus, only Windows Defender, and have absolutely no problems with that sort of stuff. It isnt just a new theme- there are tons of interface changes.

Intrepid will have a newer theme. Hopefully it will be mine. But really- why didnt they do this 2 years ago? Creating a new look doesnt take much time, especially if a lot of people work on it.

[LaRoza]

Ubuntu: 2 months to do all of this. They exist, why not make one a default before this point?

And that isnt true about Vista. I dont understand this FUD about Vista- I changed because it was better than XP. It doesnt crash, it only gets slow if you dont have enough ram. It has never BSOD'd on me. XP would have system32 errors all the time, and would lose my files. In those 5 years- XP came out in 01, Vista in late 06- Microsoft introduced an improved kernel, which does help with security. I have no anti-virus, only Windows Defender, and have absolutely no problems with that sort of stuff. It isnt just a new theme- there are tons of interface changes.

Intrepid will have a newer theme. Hopefully it will be mine. But really- why didnt they do this 2 years ago? Creating a new look doesnt take much time, especially if a lot of people work on it.

Why not? Why should they?

I am not comparing Vista to XP. I am comparing it to other operating systems, and it is subpar in my experience.

[Ultra Magnus]

I think Ubuntu looks alright - I've even decided to stick the default brown theme - although with a different wallpaper. I like how the changes through the releases have been subtle, I think having a major style change could be dangerous, people have grown used to ubuntu brown - look at OS X, they have had essentially the same theme for years and no-one complains.

[acelin]

Well I will agree it is very subpar in performance, but only in that, although that makes everything else horrible at times...

Ubuntu - I love. I just wish it looked nicer by default - I am honestly embarrassed to show Ubuntu to people sometimes, at least with fresh installs.

Hopefully I can get my theme through...

[vishzilla]

I just downloaded it last night (very slow going) and am going to install it on my laptop :-)

Hope it is as good as people say it is.

The only factor, its KDE 4. I've never been a fan of KDE. I'll give OpenSUSE a fair try

[SunnyRabbiera]

I think ubuntu looks quite good already and time can tell it will look better.
I like the murrine themes :D

[acelin]

I think Ubuntu looks alright - I've even decided to stick the default brown theme - although with a different wallpaper. I like how the changes through the releases have been subtle, I think having a major style change could be dangerous, people have grown used to ubuntu brown - look at OS X, they have had essentially the same theme for years and no-one complains.

haha there are people who complain, and Leopard was a major overhaul. Much more so than anything we have had...

Well what is major? It doesnt take much for it to look nice. We just need better integration, better, sharper fonts. Our wallpaper currently is awesome- I have so many friends who havent even heard of Ubuntu who somehow have it on their desktops, and yes, even their iphones!

[FuturePilot]

Intrepid will have a newer theme. Hopefully it will be mine. But really- why didnt they do this 2 years ago? Creating a new look doesnt take much time, especially if a lot of people work on it.

They did do this 2 years ago. Ubuntu 6.06 had a completely new theme.

[acelin]

Yeah, true, but not that huge of a difference. They wont from one bad theme to another slightly shinier bad theme.

[phaed]

Yeah, it seems that a majority of people don't like the default theme. I'm one of them. I understand that Ubuntu is "Linux for human beings," so the motif was originally designed to match human skin colors (although it has veered toward orange ever since the Human icon set came out), but it's time to drop that whole association and design a more polished and professional look.

[days_of_ruin]

True LaRoza, but could someone fill me in on why the decision was made to leave Ubuntu with basically the same theme since the first release?
I think you forgot what the first release looked like, the window
borders weren't even rounded.
And btw Suses' window border button look like crap.

[acelin]

I suggest this:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Intrepid/Clear_Intrepid

[markp1989]

I would like to see a dark theme installed, not set as default(because alot op people dont like dark themes)

example, they could have the standard human theme, and a dark human theme ,for users who prefer dark themes

[Joeb454]

I happen to know that you were the one who submitted that theme. And that this thread is at least the 6th you have opened in the past month regarding Ubuntu's appearance.

[acelin]

haha yes... you know what? Its something I think should be improved and am working on. This was in particular though because I just tried out Suse for the first time, and was amazed out how nice and smooth everything was....

[smartboyathome]

Appearance is a matter of opinion. There will always be people who say they don't like the default theme. Heck, I hated both XP's and Vista's themes, so I went out and found guides to create my own using trialware. Ubuntu doesn't even need trialware to customize a theme, it comes with everything you would need by default.

[Krydahl]

Given how easy it is to customise the theme, I think that the default installed theme needs to:

Be pretty neutral - ie it should look slick but in an understated way.
Have a clear sense of brand identity.
Have a easy link to help on how to customise.

Personally, I don't much like the brown/orange look and I think that anything based round this colour scheme is always going to be a love/hate thing. However, given the Ubuntu logo is orange I guess we're pretty much stuck with something along these lines. Maybe something using very light browns, tans and beiges would work - on the same principle that people often decorate houses in those shades - neutral colours.

[Superkoop]

I really don't like the default colors/theme.
There are two colors I don't care for, brown and orange.
I don't mind the theme really, I just don't care for the colors. So I switched the controls to clearlooks, and I'm good now. The icons are pretty good, but I changed those anyhow to something even nicer.

Acelin, I like the theme that you have designed, for being brown, it's not bad. ;)

Personally I think it would be nice if there were a few more high quality themes that came with Ubuntu, something blue, and something green. And then in the installer, you would be able to choose the theme. Just MHO

[smartboyathome]

Be pretty neutral - ie it should look slick but in an understated way.

I think that the Human Clearlooks/Murrine themes do a good job at this, only needs to be combined with a better theme (I would go with FutureHuman, but that is my opinion ;)).


Have a clear sense of brand identity.

I think the Ubuntu brown gives it a clear sense of brand identity. FutureHuman could enhance this without making us look like a copycat (which I think is important, because Vista tried that and it made more people start using Macs).



Have a easy link to help on how to customise.

This would be a good idea imo. A link titled "Want to customize your theme? Click here!" would be great, and the community could provide the guide in the Ubuntu Community Wiki. The hard part would be covering all the bases, as there are people who use pixmap themes, clearlook themes, murrine themes, rezlooks themes, and others. It would have to cover all of them, not hard if the community works together.

[LaRoza]

I suggest this:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Intrepid/Clear_Intrepid

Does that theme exist to try out?

[smartboyathome]

I really don't like the default colors/theme.
There are two colors I don't care for, brown and orange.
I don't mind the theme really, I just don't care for the colors. So I switched the controls to clearlooks, and I'm good now. The icons are pretty good, but I changed those anyhow to something even nicer.

Acelin, I like the theme that you have designed, for being brown, it's not bad. ;)

Personally I think it would be nice if there were a few more high quality themes that came with Ubuntu, something blue, and something green. And then in the installer, you would be able to choose the theme. Just MHO

People have asked for this before, and it will never happen. Ubuntu won't add an extra unnecessary step to the installer, though they may add how to change the theme in the new slideshow being created for the installer.


Does that theme exist to try out?

Obviously not, since it has rounded menus which we can't do atm.

[kevin11951]

Does that theme exist to try out?

read the dark colored windows in the screenshot...

[zekopeko]

I suggest this:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Intrepid/Clear_Intrepid

that theme is REALLY ugly. the window buttons looks like they came from 80s. And the colors.... shiver...
the progress bars and scrollbars have no style or animations. human theme at least has that.

[acelin]

I am working on it LaRoza!

[acelin]

WTF honestly. The buttons look way better than the current stuff... They are actually clear and have a nice smooth gradient, with an incredibly easy to read font.

We are required to use the Ubuntu palette on the art team. trust me- i would have preferred white or something else.

[acelin]

Oops double post.

[zekopeko]

oops... i meant the window buttons. and the window borders are too big. they waste space.

and i suggest that you use any color you want. it might not be the default theme but if it's good i would think that it would be included in ubuntu

and not too be so negative... i like how the window and borders are seamless. that's what i really like in leopard

[acelin]

There are hardly any windows borders... you cant even tell in the current mockup. They will be as thin as possible, maybe 1 pixel except for the top at 20 pixels.

And the windows buttons simply are the icon. Simplistic.

If I recall, 80's buttons are really pixelated, and were often always surrounded by an awful button of some sort.

[akiratheoni]

I happen to know that you were the one who submitted that theme. And that this thread is at least the 6th you have opened in the past month regarding Ubuntu's appearance.

QFT, I'm starting to get annoyed at all of these threads now... I appreciate the effort but these threads are nothing but self-advertisement for your own theme, which personally I think is really ugly.


Oops double post.

Err, triple post.

[acelin]

80's huh?

http://www.2dolphins.com/images/blogpix/windows_1_screenshot.png
http://www.digibarn.com/collections/systems/apple-lisa2xl/apple_lisa_screenshot.gif

90's huh?
http://www.harding.edu/fmccown/gui/win95.gif
http://blog.wired.com/cultofmac/Mac_OS_9_screenshot_2-tm.jpg

Windows?
http://www.viruspool.net/screenshots/AVGonXP.png
http://www.bryceboe.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/vista.png

OS X?
http://skattertech.com/media/2007/10/apple-os-x-leopard-screenshot.jpg

...?

[acelin]

It started out as a discussion about Suse.

Thanks to the mod who closes this.

[UniverseA7X]

acelin, I think your theme has grown on me. It is definitely good, but I didn't think so at first.

And I think that says a LOT because of the following.

The default theme has to catch your eye off the bat. You have too look at it first thing and like it. I think Hardy's wallpaper was a step in the right direction. It caught my eye the moment I looked at it, and I love it still, I use it quite often. I have it on my iPod. And like someone said earlier in the thread, some people have it and they don't even know what Ubuntu is.

However, I don't think you should be discouraged the least because of what a couple people say on this forum. Keep working on it, maybe take their criticisms as constructive, and if you don't agree, don't do it.

[zekopeko]

well the top border is really too much. just examine the FILE menu item and the wasted space above it. perhaps we should go with a more vistaish look when talking about borders. screen real state is one thing GTK+ does badly. the button are to big when they should be smaller. XP has more visual space then GNOME on the same resolution.

[akiratheoni]

The default theme has to catch your eye off the bat. You have too look at it first thing and like it. I think Hardy's wallpaper was a step in the right direction. It caught my eye the moment I looked at it, and I love it still, I use it quite often. I have it on my iPod. And like someone said earlier in the thread, some people have it and they don't even know what Ubuntu is.


It looks awesome on a shirt :)

[zekopeko]

It started out as a discussion about Suse.

Thanks to the mod who closes this.

you opened the discussion when you proposed your theme. <snip> . you did the same thing when you first presented your theme an asked for somebody to code it (if i remember correctly) but didn't want criticism.
i just want a theme that will have the same effect as the hardy wallpaper when you first see it. the WOW effect.

one thing i would like is a unique wallpaper each release that follows the naming convention of ubuntu release (heron for hardy , ibex for intrepid etc).

[acelin]

oh ok I see what you mean. I agree- I prefer maximized screen space. This will be fixed.

[UniverseA7X]

It looks awesome on a shirt :)

Are you able to get a shirt somewhere?:KS

[Exsecrabilus]

If I download the DVD, will I be able to:

1. Use it as a Live CD?

2. Choose what desktop environment I want to test out on the Live CD?

3. Choose what desktop environment I want to install?

4. If I don't get to do #3, how do I choose what desktop environment I want to install?

[zekopeko]

Are you able to get a shirt somewhere?:KS

it's available in the ubuntu store but unfortunately no limited edition any more. that one had better main color of the t-shirt

[akiratheoni]

Are you able to get a shirt somewhere?:KS

Yup yup :) It was a limited edition... I got the second run which is a lighter color, the first t-shirt was the same color as the wallpaper. Cost me nearly $40 but it's worth it, Canonical after all is giving us Ubuntu for free, I wanna support them :)

https://shop.canonical.com/product_info.php?products_id=195&osCsid=99405231c9b2895566a48d164f5178ff

Anyway this is off-topic lol.

[cardinals_fan]

SUSE has always had an incredibly professional look to it. Why? Because green is awesome.

With that said, Ubuntu retains the brown for individuality and removing it would, IMHO, be a mistake. Instead, each Ubuntu CD could include a brief, 1-page PDF that pops up at startup explaining basic system customization, for those who dislike brown.

@acelin: I mean no offense, because I realize that you've worked hard on that theme for a while now. But, to me, it is rather repulsive. Colors should be used selectively, to brighten the desktop in an attractive manner. Filling the window backgrounds with solid colors (other than a discreet off-white) is revolting.

[bapoumba]

It started out as a discussion about Suse.

Thanks to the mod who closes this.

Closed per OP's request.
(and you are welcome).