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Ubuntu 10.04 Appearance Changes vs Ubuntu 9.10

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Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Appearance Changes vs Ubuntu 9.10

#41

Post by jsz0 »

I think it's a big step backwards. It just doesn't fit. The selling point of Linux, as a desktop OS, would be its stability, reliability, flexibility, etc. I don't think using these weird exotic colors in such inconsistent ways sells those points very well. It looks very amateurish. Of course the point is made you can change the colors/theme easily but let's face it -- lots of people are going to look at the screenshots and make huge irrational assumptions based on them. Something cleaner and more professional looking would capture the essence of desktop Linux better in my opinion. I've always liked the default CentOS theme:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Centos41-...

Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Appearance Changes vs Ubuntu 9.10

#43

Post by sandGorgon »

sliverstorm wrote: post #20
y0ghur7_xxx wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I find the new kubuntu with kde 4.4 much nicer. http://www.kde.org/announcements/4.4/plasma.php

The engine/mechanics/code in KDE 4.4 are great, but I hate every single KDE theme. Way too much candy, way too cheesy. I personally kind of wish the two projects would merge in just the right way.

very true - take a look at the Klassik theme combined with Skulpture.

I really wish someone would make a better theme - gnome themes look so much better.

Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Appearance Changes vs Ubuntu 9.10

#44

Post by kentosi »

dchest wrote: post #32
baddox wrote: post #4

As a huge fan of Linux, I have to say the modern Apple and Microsoft operating systems look significantly better.

I've recently tried Mint Linux, and it's very aesthetically pleasing (screenshot http://i.imgur.com/2OBiH.png ). (Disclaimer: Mac user) Edit: except for the tray icons.

One of the main reasons why that screenshot looks good is due to the fonts you're using, which are good fonts (presumably from MS Windows).

Good fonts always make a massive difference in terms of screenshots.

Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Appearance Changes vs Ubuntu 9.10

#45

Post by kentosi »

jsz0 wrote: post #41

I think it's a big step backwards. It just doesn't fit. The selling point of Linux, as a desktop OS, would be its stability, reliability, flexibility, etc. I don't think using these weird exotic colors in such inconsistent ways sells those points very well. It looks very amateurish. Of course the point is made you can change the colors/theme easily but let's face it -- lots of people are going to look at the screensh…

But you could also argue it the other way.

Staying with a stereotypical light gray desktop theme is easy and doesn't distinguish it from anything else out there. Mac and windows both made bold decisions with their UI, not all of which may have appealed to a lot ot people (remember "pinestripes" on mac? remember the cartoonish look of XP?).

While I do see this theme as slightly unual (in that it's a "dark" theme), I do applaud them for taking a risk.

Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Appearance Changes vs Ubuntu 9.10

#46

Post by dchest »

kentosi wrote: post #44
dchest wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've recently tried Mint Linux, and it's very aesthetically pleasing (screenshot http://i.imgur.com/2OBiH.png ). (Disclaimer: Mac user) Edit: except for the tray icons.

One of the main reasons why that screenshot looks good is due to the fonts you're using, which are good fonts (presumably from MS Windows). Good fonts always make a massive difference in terms of screenshots.

I agree, fonts (and their aliasing) make a big difference. But the UI font is the standard DejaVu Sans. (Only Google's page is in Arial.)

Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Appearance Changes vs Ubuntu 9.10

#47

Post by dchest »

chancho wrote: post #40
dchest wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've recently tried Mint Linux, and it's very aesthetically pleasing (screenshot http://i.imgur.com/2OBiH.png ). (Disclaimer: Mac user) Edit: except for the tray icons.

That is almost exactly the Dust theme which is now default in ubuntu, with green icons instead of orange.

That "almost" is where the big difference is. I think this theme is more balanced and pleasing.

Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Appearance Changes vs Ubuntu 9.10

#48

Post by carussell »

Tichy wrote: post #37
carussell wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're panels. There's one task bar (window list) on the bottom panel by default. And you can get rid of them now if you want. I'm reading comments like above mentioning how Linux Mint's look is aesthetically pleasing. Really? It's almost all GNOME. Why discuss a whole change of distro to get a different theme/look? Just change the theme. It's not even like you're downloading third party apps or doing registry tweak…

I usually stick with the default theme, except for reconfiguring the panels. Why change the default theme? Last time changing themes excited me was when I had an Amiga 500.

There's hardly excitement from me. My choices are mostly functional; I think skinning culture is kind of silly (e.g., especially so with the hype about Mozilla Personas). There are things that I could do to make things look nice or gimmicky, but I'm definitely happy to do without for functional gains, and I do.

Here's the end result of my "theming": http://i42.tinypic.com/2r5b0pi.jpg

Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Appearance Changes vs Ubuntu 9.10

#49

Post by Tichy »

carussell wrote: post #48
Tichy wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I usually stick with the default theme, except for reconfiguring the panels. Why change the default theme? Last time changing themes excited me was when I had an Amiga 500.

There's hardly excitement from me. My choices are mostly functional; I think skinning culture is kind of silly (e.g., especially so with the hype about Mozilla Personas). There are things that I could do to make things look nice or gimmicky, but I'm definitely happy to do without for functional gains, and I do. Here's the end result of my "theming": http://i42.tinypic.com/2r5b0pi.jpg

Is it easy to exchange themes? I might be bothered to theme if there is an easy way to set the theme on every computer I use. I suppose some productivity enhancements are possible, I just never took the time.

Re: Ubuntu 10.04 Appearance Changes vs Ubuntu 9.10

#50

Post by eru »

baddox wrote: post #36
eru wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I for one like the clean look of my XMonad.

I've heard a lot about XMonad. Could you give a brief rundown of your setup (and what you like about it) and maybe a screenshot or two?

My screenshots are really boring. There's no eye-candy. You know how Emacs looks like, now just imagine it full-screen without the window-decoration and I even removed the menu-bar and scroll-bar from Emacs. My terminals also have the scroll-bar removed.

I use the smart-borders, so that my windows only get 1-pixel borders when they are not in full-screen.

I have focus-follows-mouse and mouse-follows-focus. The left Windows-key acts as the modmask-key, i.e. the main key to activate Xmonad stuff. Alt is the default, but that interferes with Emacs.

I like that there's nothing to distract me while coding, and that I use all of my screen real estate for the task at hand, instead of menus, task-bars and the like. Especially the lack of a task-bar is an advantage in my opinion, as I am not tempted too much by my browser while working on code in Emacs.

Floating windows like print dialogs annoy me sometimes. Especially when they steal focus. I should be less lazy and fix those.

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