Check it out. I haven't had the time to install any of the themes but they all look *very* good.
This man should be hired to make Koala look AWESOME
Archived thread 1152129 from Karmic Koala Testing and Discussion (CLOSED). Markdown source: Karmic_Koala_Testing_and_Discussion_(CLOSED)/thread_1152129_This_man_should_be_hired_to_make_Koala_look_AWESOM.md
Nice find, and worth installing.
installing the themes now, they look really good on the screenshots. definitely think it would be a good idea to get him on the ubuntu design team.
There okay... but im pretty picky though :p
Don't be silly, if they did that we'd actually get the new look we've constantly been promised. That would mean Canonical would have to deliver on that, and of course that'll never happen.
these themes are good add-on... they should be included in the community-themes... or they should be at least in the universe repo
using the bamboo theme right now - awesome... i used to use dark themes, but i can't seem to change from this... like it too much :)
and no point in new look, gnome 3 will come in few years :D we have been waiting for the new look longer... so we can wait until gnome 3 emerges
meborc said: these themes are good add-on... they should be included in the community-themes... or they should be at least in the universe repo
using the bamboo theme right now - awesome... i used to use dark themes, but i can't seem to change from this... like it too much :)
and no point in new look, gnome 3 will come in few years :D we have been waiting for the new look longer... so we can wait until gnome 3 emerges
OOooh so we can all be wowed by GNOME3 a year after possible converts are already using Windows 7?
Good job dropping the ball a third time, Linux.
lol, Nothing special, just vista icons + theme.
YES! Make him make official themes for ubuntu! Please, please, please! :D
Wasn't that impressed with them, they look nice but most of them look nearly identical from the screenshots
Merk42 said: OOooh so we can all be wowed by GNOME3 a year after possible converts are already using Windows 7?
Good job dropping the ball a third time, Linux.
Converts are going to like KDE better ... http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/software/soa/Is-it-Windows-7-or-KDE-4-/0,139023769,339294810,00.htm :)
Anyways on a more serious note: Converts are probably going to enjoy a release which doesn't lock up bad every so often better than one which does, even if that means the look is a bit dated... And Converts are going to enjoy the wow-this-stuff-is-fast over anything else (excepting of course: not breaking down in the middle of whatever it is you're doing then).
No, hire the Dust theme creator (also the Ibex wallpaper creator) to make Koala look AWESOME ;-)
Hire me as well i m not a designer, not a IT but i have just lost my job so why not working to make koala awesome :popcorn:
dirtylobster said: http://francois.vogelweith.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=18&setLang=en-GB&Itemid=23
Check it out. I haven't had the time to install any of the themes but they all look *very* good.
Found the site during Jaunty and been using BALANZAN. It's great change.
dirtylobster said: http://francois.vogelweith.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=18&setLang=en-GB&Itemid=23
Check it out. I haven't had the time to install any of the themes but they all look *very* good.
Are you going to pay his salary?
In general I think they are good, but they aren't very colorful and they are mostly variants of each other, other than balanzan, which looks distinctly different than the rest. I like the gdm themes, and I like how they are all packaged to look nicely together. More of a look than just a theme. There is also a lack of dark themes there, but I wouldn't expect one because they can still have so many problems, expecially hybrid themes in half-gtk applications.
I'd say well put together, but not exactly amazing or innovative.
Nothing special!!!
I've always found the prospect of the community being intensely interested in whom Canonical should hire somewhat out of place.
Canonical doesn't constantly issue opinions of what the community should and shouldn't do with Ubuntu, and has no interest in doing so. The same should apply the other way. It would benefit us much more to focus on the community side and do the best we can there, rather than constantly speculating on Canonical's possible future decisions.
As for the themes, they're just that: themes. They may have some use as add-on themes for people who find them good looking for whatever reason, but the holistic design of the default look and behavior of an operating system is not merely theme design, and the work here exhibits no merit of such an understanding.
This guy appears to do great work, thanks for posting this.
Reiger said: Converts are going to like KDE better ... http://www.zdnet.com.au/insight/software/soa/Is-it-Windows-7-or-KDE-4-/0,139023769,339294810,00.htm :)
Anyways on a more serious note: Converts are probably going to enjoy a release which doesn't lock up bad every so often better than one which does, even if that means the look is a bit dated... And Converts are going to enjoy the wow-this-stuff-is-fast over anything else (excepting of course: not breaking down in the middle of whatever it is you're doing then).
Yup, I'm one such example, dumped Ubuntu for Kubuntu during the Jaunty dev cycle thanks to a decent KDE 4.2 release :biggrin:
No offense to the creator, cuz Im artistically handicapped...but I really only enjoyed the Bamboo Zen theme....everything else was like meh.....
I've seen really good walls on the Interfacelift.com site..
23meg said: I've always found the prospect of the community being intensely interested in whom Canonical should hire somewhat out of place.
Canonical doesn't constantly issue opinions of what the community should and shouldn't do with Ubuntu, and has no interest in doing so. The same should apply the other way. It would benefit us much more to focus on the community side and do the best we can there, rather than constantly speculating on Canonical's possible future decisions.
As for the themes, they're just that: themes. They may have some use as add-on themes for people who find them good looking for whatever reason, but the holistic design of the default look and behavior of an operating system is not merely theme design, and the work here exhibits no merit of such an understanding.
sounds like facism
we plebs shall carry on then
23meg said: I've always found the prospect of the community being intensely interested in whom Canonical should hire somewhat out of place.
Canonical doesn't constantly issue opinions of what the community should and shouldn't do with Ubuntu, and has no interest in doing so. The same should apply the other way. It would benefit us much more to focus on the community side and do the best we can there, rather than constantly speculating on Canonical's possible future decisions.
As for the themes, they're just that: themes. They may have some use as add-on themes for people who find them good looking for whatever reason, but the holistic design of the default look and behavior of an operating system is not merely theme design, and the work here exhibits no merit of such an understanding.
Enjoyed this post, makes me laugh to realize every cycle that posts with highest reply/view count are always the ones that concerns theme.
Said it before and will say it again, please put your energy to something more useful, than complaining about the default theme. Multimedia content needs some loving, Video/audio drivers needs some loving, All of them are more important to basic user than the default theme. If desktop env fails to launch, due to bugs in video driver, what difference it makes what the theme is?
It obviously seems to make a big difference to a lot of people!! :D
edit: wtf stupid filters. intended to write the above in all caps
dirtylobster said: It obviously seems to make a big difference to a lot of people!! :D
Yeah, the default theme that canonical provides for gnome, is the most important thing for complete desktop experience....
If it matters to you, then change the theme. What's the fuzz? Like I stated earlier, theme shouldn't be users highest concern, rather than a working desktop enviroment. Theme is only tiny part of it.
There are many important parts of the desktop experience other than the default theme, but an ugly theme REALLY detracts from the experience and is so simple to change that I'm astonished Ubuntu still uses such an ugly ugly theme...
Sadly Apple seems to be one of the only ones who understands how far they can get with a polished look and feel. People LOVE the *boxes* that macs come in. Seems rediculous but true. It's my firm belief that look and feel are a big part of market share, a part that Canonical is ignoring for some strange reason.
Lucretius said: sounds like facism
we plebs shall carry on then
+1
I can't see how it can be hurtful to speculate on Canonical's possible future decisions, if people wants to do that, let them.
Canonical is probably also speculating on how the users use Ubuntu, nothing wrong with that.
I hardly think that the creator of the thread tries to give orders to Canonical (that would be a bit strange), he is merely ventilating his opinions.
taavikko said: Yeah, the default theme that canonical provides for gnome, is the most important thing for complete desktop experience....
If it matters to you, then change the theme. What's the fuzz? Like I stated earlier, theme shouldn't be users highest concern, rather than a working desktop enviroment. Theme is only tiny part of it.
The thing is, as has been stated before, people trying to make video drivers better is not the same people trying to make a nice theme and vice versa. As a result, the development of video drivers does not suffer because of this.
olskar said: The thing is, as has been stated before, people trying to make video drivers better is not the same people trying to make a nice theme and vice versa. As a result, the development of video drivers does not suffer because of this.
Yes I'm aware of this. The thing also is that community wastes valuable resources complaining about the theme, when that time and energy could be put in better use. That's what I'm trying to tell...
The OP's idea is good, (at least the title) Ubuntu's default theme needs a facelift to compete with visually better looking options. Canonical has its own visions and strategies to achieve this, and in due time they'll come to reality. [b] Speculating and ranting here about current status is the waste of time.[/b] By all means, if it makes users/testers happy to moan it in here, go ahead, it's just that it doesn't serve any purpose, it doesn't lead anywhere.
As for now, people will change the theme if they so desire, I fail to see what's the problem with that. I personally want the desktop to look like me, and there's tools avail to achieve this.
UGH, I've spoken many unwise things, time to let go.
Lucretius said: sounds like facism
we plebs shall carry on then
That reminds me that I should have just quoted the OP and replied "sounds like populism; the overlords shall not rule then" instead of wasting time elaborating my position; thanks.
olskar said: +1
I can't see how it can be hurtful to speculate on Canonical's possible future decisions, if people wants to do that, let them.
Canonical is probably also speculating on how the users use Ubuntu, nothing wrong with that.
I hardly think that the creator of the thread tries to give orders to Canonical (that would be a bit strange), he is merely ventilating his opinions.
Sure, if people want to do it, which they do, they should be able to, and they are, to the extent that it doesn't get offensive. I haven't said anything about whether people should be *allowed* to do so. I also didn't intend to address the OP in specific, but this kind of talk in general.
I would just prefer it if more people adopted a view of Canonical as the main actor in the Ubuntu show, rather than the only one. A discourse with constant speculations of what Canonical should do with their resources instills an image of Canonical as the owner and sole controller of Ubuntu, which is not factual, and plays down the importance of the community efforts.
why did this thread get so angry all of the sudden? :)
stay on topic please... if you have nothing to say on topic, don't say it or start a new thread
the point of this thread (as i see it) is to give a link to people who like to try out new themes... that is all
why are we talking politics here?
meborc said:
why are we talking politics here?
Because the people who say we waste too much time on it, have too much time.
I was rather hesitant about downloading a whole 180MB, since I'm on a 10GB bandwidth allowance, but the themes were worth every single bit. I'm very impressed.
Ohh please make him the new theme designer for ubuntu 9.10 or any other upcoming verion. Mr. Mark this my humble request!!! :guitar::)
meborc said: why did this thread get so angry all of the sudden? :)
stay on topic please... if you have nothing to say on topic, don't say it or start a new thread
I consider it to be on topic to be critical of the vast amount of verbage that goes into every release about the theme. It always end up to be a waste of time that cumulatively could be much better placed into something tangible. There's lots of ways for people of all skills to contribute.
Canonical is a company that is yet to prove its robustness financially. Their money is not unlimited and certainly compelling arguments could be made about any possible new roles being better spent elsewhere. Theres lots of problems in very important aspects of the *real* system than some fluff with art.
There is a reason the more experienced testers in this forum mostly have the view that were are collectively over wasted talk about art.
Nullack said: I consider it to be on topic to be critical of the vast amount of verbage that goes into every release about the theme. It always end up to be a waste of time that cumulatively could be much better placed into something tangible. There's lots of ways for people of all skills to contribute.
Canonical is a company that is yet to prove its robustness financially. Their money is not unlimited and certainly compelling arguments could be made about any possible new roles being better spent elsewhere. Theres lots of problems in very important aspects of the *real* system than some fluff with art.
There is a reason the more experienced testers in this forum mostly have the view that were are collectively over wasted talk about art. +1
Every argument and rebuttal has been made already, including this one.
I don't worry too much what ubuntu looks like because its _usable_ and there, I'm specifically talking about the theme, even if it is outdated it isn't exactly square either and apps aren't broken with the theme. I want a new theme just as much as the next guy, but it isn't exactly at the top of my list - I like things that change the underlying system more, like the new notifications, which changes what things can look like, not just what they look like. The community makes great things if they've got something to work with, and even when they don't. If you don't already, follow the monthly desktop screenshot thread in the Community Cafe; there is diversity and innovation every day.
No these themes are nothing compared to eGTK theme as far as I am concerned. Even Dust...
Reiger said: Converts are going to like KDE better ...
Hahahahahaha!!! KDE4 is not my idea of a user-friendly DE. And the two people I know who are windows guys tried it and both ended up making fun of it. (and this was 4.2)
MadsRH said: No, hire the Dust theme creator (also the Ibex wallpaper creator) to make Koala look AWESOME ;-)
The Dust theme creator also made the Ibex wallpaper art.
danbuter said: Hahahahahaha!!! KDE4 is not my idea of a user-friendly DE. And the two people I know who are windows guys tried it and both ended up making fun of it. (and this was 4.2)
Well they won't use something that looks like an OS from ten years ago. So I guess they just won't convert.
Nullack said: I consider it to be on topic to be critical of the vast amount of verbage that goes into every release about the theme. It always end up to be a waste of time that cumulatively could be much better placed into something tangible. There's lots of ways for people of all skills to contribute.
I believe this is similar to the mistaken believe that devs who are who are doing work on (e.g.) notifications could just as well spend time on (e.g.) kernal drivers - which of course is not true.
Similarly those users who debate a lot about new themes do so because that is what gets them interested and going - doesn't mean they would have the same enthusiasm for testing writing about (e.g.) wifi drivers.
Therefore there's no real wastage of effort at all. People are interested in what they are interested in.
And while I'm personally already fine with the themes Ubuntu already got I also think that many underestimate the power of the looks. Appearances are important. Not more important than a working system - but also important. The cube effect alone is responsible for many converts from windows to Linux. Look at the comments under youtube videos showing off early Ubuntu+Compiz/Beryl versions - users who never ran Linux before were excited about that and asked how they can have that too.
Apple is not using the best hardware. It's OS has bugs as much as anybody elses and some design decsions are downright stupid in my book (insisting on single mouse button for years for example) but they produce machines and themes that many find very appealing - so much so that people overlook some other issues because of that (IPhone is the sleekest phone around - but it misses some functionality that old simple phones have).
Looks are important.
But Canonical should have stopped announcing a new theme 3 releases ago - just deliver one when it's ready. Announcing it every 6 months - and then postponing every time is starting to look silly. ;-)
Thank you for that brilliant post Sophont. :)
Sophont said: But Canonical should have stopped announcing a new theme 3 releases ago - just deliver one when it's ready. Announcing it every 6 months - and then postponing every time is starting to look silly. ;-)
actually it is already looking silly ... :popcorn:
Sophont I fully recognise and encourage contributions to the Ubuntu art team and other "look" areas. That is tangible work. My criticism is of endless debates about the theme and art which has for many releases now done nothing tangible and yet seems to attract thousands on thousands of posts by many, many people. Other people have made similar remarks about the frustration with much griping and no helping in this area. It's the Ubuntu spirit to get involved - as I said, all people of all skills have a way they can contribute.
It would make sense that with major changes with clutter and other elements for gnome 3 that Canonical is delaying a major new theme so that the work has an ongoing life within gnome 3.
Nullack said: Sophont I fully recognise and encourage contributions to the Ubuntu art team and other "look" areas. That is tangible work. My criticism is of endless debates about the theme and art which has for many releases now done nothing tangible and yet seems to attract thousands on thousands of posts by many, many people. Other people have made similar remarks about the frustration with much griping and no helping in this area. It's the Ubuntu spirit to get involved - as I said, all people of all skills have a way they can contribute.
It would make sense that with major changes with clutter and other elements for gnome 3 that Canonical is delaying a major new theme so that the work has an ongoing life within gnome 3.
Personally, I think, with all due respect to communitythemes, it's good that Canonical has finally hired a professional designteam.
Nullack said: Sophont I fully recognise and encourage contributions to the Ubuntu art team and other "look" areas. That is tangible work. My criticism is of endless debates about the theme and art which has for many releases now done nothing tangible and yet seems to attract thousands on thousands of posts by many, many people. Other people have made similar remarks about the frustration with much griping and no helping in this area. It's the Ubuntu spirit to get involved - as I said, all people of all skills have a way they can contribute.
Love you man, tried to achieve the same with my posts, but having too much time ;) I ended up sounding little harsh.
there are themes on "devianart"gnome-art/gnome-look" and wherever to choose the one you like, In linux you're not restricted to only one option. Your free to wonder and discover your favourite.
If canonical can deliver the final theme that is absolutely astonishing, good. If not, good :) Theme can't be the only merit to achieve recognition by others,let other qualities as well determine the success.
It'd be nice so see something like this for Karmic (obviously more ubuntu-y colors) - only problem is, very few people have gpu drivers which can blur properly - see screenshot below.
Mazza558 said: It'd be nice so see something like this for Karmic (obviously more ubuntu-y colors) - only problem is, very few people have gpu drivers which can blur properly - see screenshot below.
That looks far better than the themes this thread is about. Far better.
Mazza558 said: It'd be nice so see something like this for Karmic (obviously more ubuntu-y colors) - only problem is, very few people have gpu drivers which can blur properly - see screenshot below.
If gdm theme is somewhat reddish, it would be great thing for gtk2 theme to follow the lead to create matching look/feel.
For the gpu drivers, don't think it's feasible to held back the development as older hardware gets obsolete, not much point of holding back to be able to support it...
Exploration should gear towards on how to enable some hardware to work with current releases. Some laptops don't start without some extra options passed to kernel and such.
Nullack said: Sophont I fully recognise and encourage contributions to the Ubuntu art team and other "look" areas. That is tangible work. My criticism is of endless debates about the theme and art which has for many releases now done nothing tangible and yet seems to attract thousands on thousands of posts by many, many people. Other people have made similar remarks about the frustration with much griping and no helping in this area. It's the Ubuntu spirit to get involved - as I said, all people of all skills have a way they can contribute.
But they can't contribute. Take this "hypothetical" situation: A person or group of people made a theme. Others comment on it and it is tweaked to where it is well received. People put it in brainstorm to be the default. Canonical decides themselves to not change the default to regardless of the help from the community in creating in and others recommending it.
oh wait, I just described something like Dust.
Nullack said: It would make sense that with major changes with clutter and other elements for gnome 3 that Canonical is delaying a major new theme so that the work has an ongoing life within gnome 3.
Then be completely honest and say "*A new theme is coming with GNOME 3*" and not "*A new theme is coming with {current_release}+1*"
olskar said: Personally, I think, with all due respect to communitythemes, it's good that Canonical has finally hired a professional designteam.
Except, you know, other than a GDM they haven't produced anything tangible either. I'd love to be proven wrong that the artwork first drop isn't more than wallpapers and maybe another GDM.
Sorry, could not resist posting here. I'm also tired of the constant (and somehow boringly lame) moaning about how [insert pejorative adjective here] Canonical is and how it ignores excellent community artwork. Community does its own thing and that's that. In my opinion Canonical does not ignore it.
The question is not about a theme. There are several included and the default one is already widely associated with ubuntu, even somehow iconic and easily recognizable. I like it more than the community-themes and even if I have tried some other ones I find myself always reverting back to default one. Most of users I know have no gripes with the default theme. People who use here linux are not the ones intensely interested in bling, but the ones, who are cost sensitive and inclined to think ecologically (information ecology is a form of ecology too). So the mundane brown is all right and even ideologically correct. No point getting all exited and angry about the themes.
Nullack and Taaviko, I appreciate that its frustrating, but you have to let people have their say, simple as that.
People will post about what they're passionate about and there's absolutely no chance that they'll somehow become focussed and productive by NOT posting. Hell, the fact you two keep posting on this thread is proof of this.
I tried killing the CTRL-ALT-Backspace poll/thread about 10 times in Jaunty with sometimes really brutal posts. It didn't work. Some people got very annoyed with me (probably correctly). That thread ended with nearly 500 posts.
You have to let people have their say, even when it's been said before (and before that... and before that again... and...)
Merk42 said: Then be completely honest and say "*A new theme is coming with GNOME 3*" and not "*A new theme is coming with {current_release}+1*"
Mate, I dont work for Canonical and I dont know for certain what their issues are RE shifting the theme again. What I said was that it makes sense to delay it given the significant changes gnome 3 is introducing.
Waiting for Gnome 3 makes no sense IMHO. Most of the design is independant of a particular Gnome version. Sure - some effects need support by a theme engine - but wallpaper, color scheme etc... is portable from one version to the next even if some parts have to be adapted for shiny new transparency effects and/or new widget elements.
Also what I have seen so far (I did install Gnome 3 to have an interactive look) of Gnome 3 shell is not very convincing. I hope there stuff planned to make that shell much more awesome than it is atm. Not to be misunderstood - it ain't bad. It's cute and has nice effects. But for now it's more of a desktop management alternative to cube+docky - it's not the great breakthrough that people will expect as alternative to KDE4.
IMHO Gnome is mostly fine as it is. What I'd like to see for Gnome 3 is under-the hood improvements mostly. Get rid of old cruft. Clean up and optimize interfaces and libs. For cool effects we already have the impressive power of what compiz and tools like gnome-do or awn can provide.
Personally I don't need a new default theme. I'm ok with the old one (though IMHO the login screen in jaunty was a step back - but not terrible) and I can easily switch to others if I prefer that.
As a poster said above earthy/chocolate brown and/or orangy tones are now as iconic for Ubuntu as blue is for windows, green for Suse and silver for Mac. Recognizability is a good thing. Not using the same old blue (whatever it's color-theory advantages it might have - or not - people will debate that ad nauseam as much as the pro/cons between single menu bar on screen-top or on every window (I hate the former - others love it - shrug) ).
I like Dust a lot - together with the jaunty wallpaper you get a very elegant look for Ubuntu - that clearly is recognizable as an Ubuntu release.
I'm currently giving Balanzan a try. Also a very good and Ubuntu-looking theme. The wallpaper and login screen look awesome.
Hm - got a bit off-topic above - shrug. ;-)
But back to the controversy - as along as there is one or a very few long threads - and not dozens of short ones - why does it matter whether some people debate a new default theme every release?
Just ignore the thread if it doesn't interest you - voila - problem solved. :-)
Ubuntu will get a new default theme when it gets a new default theme. Until then the variations of the old one aren't nearly as bad as some people say they are - quite the contrary.
Canonical should stop announcing it and just deliver when it's ready. I can understand that the decision is not easy as the looks of Ubuntu are an important part of their marketing and their marketing managed to make Ubuntu a very popular distro that made pre-installed happen in the PC market. For a new theme they need to come up with something that 1) looks good 2) looks different 3) is paradoxically also not too different from what was here before so they can prolong the established brand recognition.
And whatever they do - some will hate it. ;-)
Nullack said: Mate, I dont work for Canonical and I dont know for certain what their issues are RE shifting the theme again. What I said was that it makes sense to delay it given the significant changes gnome 3 is introducing.
I didn't think you worked for Canonical, but ponder this question:
GNOME3 was known about when Mark Shuttleworth said that a new theme was coming in 9.10. So if they truly want to wait until GNOME3, why did they initially announce a new theme for 9.10?
Heck, look at my signature, are you saying we'll have GNOME3 in Karmic+1?
dirtylobster said: http://francois.vogelweith.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=18&setLang=en-GB&Itemid=23
Check it out. I haven't had the time to install any of the themes but they all look *very* good.
I just installed them all and they are all just fabulous! Wow, even the desktop images match quite well. I agree with you. Thank you for posting your link, I now have some shiny new themes to cycle through in the coming weeks. :)
Merk42 said: Heck, look at my signature, are you saying we'll have GNOME3 in Karmic+1?
Um, that is the plan currently: http://blogs.gnome.org/lucasr/2008/07/10/gnome-30/
Also, I'd like to reiterate a point I made on the Art Team mailing list to someone: Perhaps Mark is saying there's more to a "new look" than a new clearlooks/murrine theme. For the first time, Canonical has hired people specifically for this job and they're currently looking for more of them and they're making a concerted effort to overhaul the entire Ubuntu look and "experience" with Ayatana. I'm skeptical too until the fruits of their labor become more apparent, but I'm hopeful that they're going to do things right. If the notifications are any glimpse of what's to come, then I'm looking forward to seeing more.
jblackhall said: Um, that is the plan currently: http://blogs.gnome.org/lucasr/2008/07/10/gnome-30/
Well that's back in July. Even earlier than when Mark said we'd get a new look in Karmic and then later changed his mind. So who knows what the case is now.
jblackhall said: Also, I'd like to reiterate a point I made on the Art Team mailing list to someone: Perhaps Mark is saying there's more to a "new look" than a new clearlooks/murrine theme. For the first time, Canonical has hired people specifically for this job and they're currently looking for more of them and they're making a concerted effort to overhaul the entire Ubuntu look and "experience" with Ayatana. I'm skeptical too until the fruits of their labor become more apparent, but I'm hopeful that they're going to do things right. If the notifications are any glimpse of what's to come, then I'm looking forward to seeing more.
I'd never heard of Ayatana. Interesting though. I just hope we see SOMETHING for ArtWorkFirstDrop, ideally something more than GDM, Wallpaper, even if it is a mockup
Merk42 said: Well that's back in July. Even earlier than when Mark said we'd get a new look in Karmic and then later changed his mind.
So who knows what the case is now.
Gnome development has nothing to do with Mark Shuttleworth. It involves developers from many different distros and companies including independent devs.
Is their Roadmap Plan recent enough for you? It was published in April: http://live.gnome.org/ThreePointZero/Plan
Now, are things like Gnome Shell and Gnome Zeitgeist going to be ready? The plan is to have working optional implementations in the next Gnome release so that they can be fully integrated by Gnome 3.0 (2.30).
My point is, the Gnome developers are trying to change the way the Gnome Desktop is used. Could Canonical design a shiny new Murrine theme to make Ubuntu look super slick for Karmic? Maybe. But isn't that kind of like putting lipstick on a pig, so to speak? They'd rather spend their energy on creating tangible improvements like the Notifications. Now I agree with you that some of their design choices could be better and design is important, but let's let them change the way things work before we quibble over what color the active window decoration is.
jblackhall said: Gnome development has nothing to do with Mark Shuttleworth. It involves developers from many different distros and companies including independent devs.
Is their Roadmap Plan recent enough for you? It was published in April: http://live.gnome.org/ThreePointZero/Plan
I realize GNOME development is different, but ultimately isn't it up to Ubuntu to decide if they want to change over to GNOME 3 (much like the debate of when to change to KDE4 when that came out)
jblackhall said:
My point is, the Gnome developers are trying to change the way the Gnome Desktop is used. Could Canonical design a shiny new Murrine theme to make Ubuntu look super slick for Karmic? Maybe. But isn't that kind of like putting lipstick on a pig, so to speak? They'd rather spend their energy on creating tangible improvements like the Notifications. Now I agree with you that some of their design choices could be better and design is important, but let's let them change the way things work before we quibble over what color the active window decoration is.
And my point is we keep getting promised things like "[Karmic] will have a designer's fingerprints all over it", but then later "we'll have a new look for 10.04 but i think only pieces of that will emerge for 9.10".
Well fine, if we don't get a new Murrine theme or whatever, then yes I would definitely want to see something tangible. When the artwork drops, or maybe news at UDS, it'd better be more than just wallpaper and GDM, and not have it pushed back yet again because GNOME3 won't be done in time for Karmic.
As I've said many times, in fact in my own thread discussing the new look, it's not that we don't get a new theme that bothers me. It's that we constantly get promised we're getting it, and then a week later it gets postponed yet again.
Very beautiful themes!
...and yes, the themes are AWESOME. I mean really awesome. Perfect blend.
I downloaded the GRUB background (Ubuntu Sunrise) but idk why it isn't working. The file is saved in ".sun" extension. Can anyone please tell me how to put it as GRUB background?
Maybe we should start a new thread about how Canonical should ship themes with Ubuntu and talk about the topic here?
I installed and use the Backgrounds namly "Tropical". They are absolutely beautiful and so nice to look at.
But after a while I felt that the Desktop Icons where clearer on the dark, neutral original background. I just might revert back. With sorrow, but it is also a question of ergonomy.
Beautiful.
Sophont said: I believe this is similar to the mistaken believe that devs who are who are doing work on (e.g.) notifications could just as well spend time on (e.g.) kernal drivers - which of course is not true.
Similarly those users who debate a lot about new themes do so because that is what gets them interested and going - doesn't mean they would have the same enthusiasm for testing writing about (e.g.) wifi drivers.
Therefore there's no real wastage of effort at all. People are interested in what they are interested in.
And while I'm personally already fine with the themes Ubuntu already got I also think that many underestimate the power of the looks. Appearances are important. Not more important than a working system - but also important. The cube effect alone is responsible for many converts from windows to Linux. Look at the comments under youtube videos showing off early Ubuntu+Compiz/Beryl versions - users who never ran Linux before were excited about that and asked how they can have that too.
Apple is not using the best hardware. It's OS has bugs as much as anybody elses and some design decsions are downright stupid in my book (insisting on single mouse button for years for example) but they produce machines and themes that many find very appealing - so much so that people overlook some other issues because of that (IPhone is the sleekest phone around - but it misses some functionality that old simple phones have).
Looks are important.
But Canonical should have stopped announcing a new theme 3 releases ago - just deliver one when it's ready. Announcing it every 6 months - and then postponing every time is starting to look silly. ;-)
+1
my favorite part,
Sophont said: People are interested in what they are interested in.
you dug up a thread from a month ago just to put "+1" :p