http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/item/12479/
I worry with everyone clambering for this mythical theme and with time running out before 8.10 ships, what will end up happening is Ubuntu will ship with the same old problematic brown and orange theme that is so hated by a lot of people.

There is a solution though...

The Dust theme
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Artwork/Incoming/Intrepid/DustTheme

The Dust theme has gotten a lot of praises on Digg and is easily as sexy as anything I've personally seen for Linux (and I'm not usually a fan of dark themes), bust most promising of all... is actually possible with the current technology we have at our disposal.

It's time to be bold! Stop defaulting to the same brown and orange and make a big bold change. Embrace Dust.

Yes you will get a few idiots who will say it's too like Vista just because it's black, but ignore them people. The wider tech community will praise Ubuntu for finally ditching its dorky themes and becoming sophisticated and sexy. New users will be eager to try out this Ubuntu thing they have heard so much about.







[369 votes] Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #12479


[7 votes] Solution #2: offer this theme and others too


]]> en-us Sat, 23 Aug 2008 18:05:58 +0000 Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:35:00 +0000 QAPoll module http://brainstorm.ubuntu.com/idea/12479/ Sat, 23 Aug 2008 19:13:20 +0000 Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:17:09 +0000
it would be perfect if all the colors were changeable ]]> Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:18:09 +0000 +1 ]]> Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:22:42 +0000 Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:31:56 +0000 Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:33:40 +0000 Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:43:35 +0000 Ubuntu should have something different from vista/mac, in my opinion.]]> Sat, 23 Aug 2008 22:59:08 +0000 Sun, 24 Aug 2008 08:36:29 +0000 http://digg.com/linux_unix/A_really_sexy_Ubuntu_theme_that_is_actually_possible]]> Sun, 24 Aug 2008 08:45:30 +0000 I've never seen this mockup you're talking about, but this Dust theme is AMAZING...
Actually, my #2 preference ( #1 is still Elegant Brit, easily found on Gnome look)]]> Sun, 24 Aug 2008 09:52:33 +0000 ]]> Sun, 24 Aug 2008 10:07:14 +0000
imho will will's theme is the only good one so far that doesn't resemble a mac in any way]]> Sun, 24 Aug 2008 12:28:04 +0000 Sun, 24 Aug 2008 12:53:11 +0000 Yes, that is one of the requirements. The Mac theme didn't look like a competitor's theme either, and that's why it's superior.
The most important thing for a theme is that it makes the OS look different than the competitors, and that's what the current 'Human' theme does. If it looks like Mac OS X, people will regard it as a cheap Mac OS X clone, no matter how different it behaves. Same for Windows Vista.
Having a bad-looking default style is, marketing-wise, better than having a good looking clone of another OS's default theme, because people will still notice that it's something different.

First it should be *original*. Invent a new style instead of copying what is already 'in'. Then, it should be good-looking.]]> Sun, 24 Aug 2008 15:52:58 +0000 Sun, 24 Aug 2008 18:11:21 +0000
I would like it more, if there were some Ubuntu-like colours and some more buttons as vojvodic said.]]> Sun, 24 Aug 2008 19:17:58 +0000 Sun, 24 Aug 2008 19:25:21 +0000 Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:38:13 +0000
I have faith in the Ubuntu developers. They tend to make wise choices when it comes to things like themes, and their implementations of new features are always very good (not just crude hacks). I think they would be able to hammer out the kinks in this theme and bring it to a state of suitability for the default theme in 8.10.

I hope we'll see and exciting yet practical and productive theme in 8.10. Dust seems like a real possibility.]]> Mon, 25 Aug 2008 05:57:38 +0000 Mon, 25 Aug 2008 07:49:04 +0000 Preferences->Appearances" and Theme tab. However all I got was a old KDE like look, nothing like what is given in snapshots.
]]> Mon, 25 Aug 2008 08:19:05 +0000
Seems what got the 818 diggs isn't the theme itself, it's the combination of "sexy Ubuntu" in the title...]]> Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:24:35 +0000
It require Aurora gtk engine. It's not in Ubuntu or it's repositories.]]> Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:29:40 +0000
Is there any binary package for Aurora or step-by-step instructions to install the Dust theme out there?

I seem to be having some problems trying to install either the Aurora engine or the theme.]]> Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:05:14 +0000 If you ask me, should we adopt this theme or any other slick and aesthetically looking theme, i'd say YES! It doesn't matter which one, as long as it is good looking.
It's amazing how people respond to the looks of an operating system. My wife really hated the Ubuntu interface, untill I changed it to something that looks like Windows. Now she says: "wow! that's fast!" and uses it. That's all we need, right?
]]> Mon, 25 Aug 2008 11:58:28 +0000
I'm all for adopting a different theme, but not this one. The panels look extremely Vista, and the windows themselves look like a geek'd over OS X.

It's nice, but it's a me-too theme.]]> Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:36:04 +0000
I'm all for adopting a different theme, but not this one. The panels look extremely Vista, and the windows themselves look like a geek'd over OS X.

It's nice, but it's a me-too theme.]]> Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:50:15 +0000 Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:35:26 +0000
"Looks way too much like Leopard.

* Borderless windows? That doesn't work so well if you don't have things better planned (i.e., every single resizable window will need a bottom-right resizer; even on OS X, which in theory should have sorted that out already, has its eventual quirks with that). Not to mention the shape of the windows is basically the same as OS X's (rounded upper edges with strikingly similar radius, square lower edges). Then there's the shadow of the windows, quite similar to OS X's too.
* The Firefox theme is obviously an adaptation of the OS X version. Please, we can do better than having round buttons on some toolbars and square buttons on others. Then there's the Safari-ish lack of a status bar, which I find quite bad... and which led here to Firefox being nearly unresizable, due to the lack of a resizer widget.
* Monochrome notification icons, also too similar to OS X's. I particularly dislike that idea, first because it doesn't really fit with the Tango palette, second because you won't succeed in getting all applications (or even the popular ones) to use similarly-themed icons. In no time the notification area will become a mess of colorful and monochrome icons. So, it's better to just stick with something that blends nicely with Tango, since that's the goal of GNOME UIs today.
* The fonts are quite small, and that, together with the color and the lack of hinting (another controversial aspect of OS X, by the way), produce text that is blurry and harder to read than it should by default.
* Plus, it's awfully hard to tell which is the focused window. But since that seems to be just a mock, it could be just that the author didn't work on that yet. Anyway, since I guess the titlebar will have to blend with the menubar for the unified look (another Leopard-ism), it won't be able to change color unless the menu bar also changes, and possibly the whole toolbar/statusbar/client area. I've never seen GTK do that, but I don't know its capabilities either. And changing just the title color will most certainly still be not enough to easily tell the focused window.

A few other problems which can be solved more easily:

* Lack of minimize and maximize buttons.
* Non-hinted fonts. I know, this is configurable, but I find it unlikely that Ubuntu will use them by default, and it'd be nice if the screenshots were taken/mocked looking closer to a default install. My personal favorite is slight hinting, anyway.

Out of curiosity, what is the "No activity" item in the top panel? I assume this is just something the author uses, not a proposal for the default panels.

But of course, the author could address all of these points, so this shouldn't be taken as a "there's no hope here" kind of criticism. I'm eagerly looking forward to new versions."]]> Mon, 25 Aug 2008 14:58:36 +0000
Linux's downfall is three-fold.

Too many distros (though Ubuntu is quickly becoming the "face" of linux and will be the one people use)

hard to install software (package manager and CNR have pretty much solved this)

theme (its just not polished or professional).

This theme, is the perfect mix between mac and vista. It is original, its not trying to copy mac (by putting a doc there), its got the gnome interface (love it), and looks very clean, polished, and professional.
This theme made me love ubuntu all over again, and I can only imagine how good it would be with desktop effects turned on.

I also think Ubuntu should start to bundle a media centre app into it.

But this theme can easily become the new look of linux, and make everybody want to switch... Now if only adobe made their products for linux...]]> Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:08:55 +0000
On the plus side, it's very similar to the KDE 4 theme, so the apps will look better together.]]> Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:33:52 +0000
For double-plus awesomeness, make all toolbars able to share a row (including location bars and file menus), so Gnome can stop shamelessly wasting 30% of a small window's height. (Yes, I realize that would mean requiring some upstream intelligence from the Gnome team, but I can dream, can't I?)]]> Mon, 25 Aug 2008 16:20:30 +0000 Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:17:59 +0000
I think this theme looks great, and would happily adopt it as my default theme; rather than shooting it down and bleating about it looking like OS X and Vista, give the creator some due!

]]> Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:18:57 +0000
- Looks professional
- Makes users feel Ubuntu is polite, elegant, clean and (why not) secure.
- When you see it you feel 'the personality', I mean people will say: 'Look its Ubuntu! This is a great system'
- Border less windows makes a lot of sense, just the necessary things and borders are not necessary.
- Combines different colors with elegance, the most dark themes are 'monocolour', this one combines black/brown/blue/grey/white and in my sense orange can be added without disturb, just to empathize 'mouse over' situations.
- It's not the boring: 'bua, looks like poo with this brown', Ubuntu theme should change (everyone knows it), let's give it an elegant look.

But there are some things to improve:

- Inverted tabs are not comfortable (too OSX, this system looks good but is not perfect, let's get the best and improve it to make Ubuntu look like the best)
- Icons should be at the same level and this means a lot of professional work.
- Brown selected buttons doesn't match with black, try with orange, red-wine or gold-whites to check how it looks.
- Scroll bars needs an unified look, KDE4 has done a very good job maybe we can learn from them.
- Panel icons needs more contrast, just plain white buttons (like for blind 'assistive accessibility') will look great, and clean.

Well, I hope this helps. Definitely one vote for 'Dust'.]]> Mon, 25 Aug 2008 22:05:30 +0000 Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:05:59 +0000 Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:33:51 +0000 Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:45:10 +0000 Tue, 26 Aug 2008 09:31:13 +0000 Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:08:53 +0000 Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:20:31 +0000 Mockups are unfinished and comments like "it should have
min and max buttons" are pointless.Of course its going
to have them.And the transparent toolbars aren't even
possible with the current gnome setup.The only thing
the mockup is for is the metacity (window border) and gtk themes.

Also, how is this like a mac?The mac is brushed steel and
is a lot lighter than this.Or is it because the window
title and the rest of the window are of the same color?
Mac didn't invent that so big deal.]]> Tue, 26 Aug 2008 14:45:11 +0000
I registered just to say this one thing. I'd buy a mac if I had the money. If Ubuntu adopted some of the metrosexual appeal of the MacOS, I wouldn't hesitate to give it a go. (Yes, I'm shallow that way)]]> Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:33:09 +0000 Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:34:23 +0000 Thu, 28 Aug 2008 06:09:44 +0000 Fri, 29 Aug 2008 19:50:06 +0000 Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:48:29 +0000 Mon, 01 Sep 2008 14:01:45 +0000 Mon, 01 Sep 2008 23:36:25 +0000 Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:33:06 +0000 Tue, 02 Sep 2008 15:11:35 +0000 ]]> Tue, 02 Sep 2008 20:23:18 +0000 The most annoying thing of the human theme, for example, is that only orange/brown wallpapers look good with it.

Although this theme needs finetuning (some letters are hard to read because of a low contrast), and it's still far from perfect, this could be a step in the good direction for Ubuntu 9.04.

For Ubuntu 8.10 , you're simply too late. The UI freeze is at 9/11 (I didn't decide that).]]> Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:18:24 +0000 Mon, 08 Sep 2008 13:49:06 +0000
you say no-one will use black??

well what the hell, you'll get no-one to switch with brown!]]> Thu, 11 Sep 2008 20:16:39 +0000 Sat, 13 Sep 2008 17:04:44 +0000
Id say it looks more like Windows 95, with those horrible grey buttons and tabs.

Human is a nice simple theme, I like it. Im guessing whichever one is default youd end up hating once youve seen it for a long time]]> Sun, 21 Sep 2008 06:19:31 +0000 Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:20:17 +0000
A set of icons would be a bless, but it blends fine with Oxygen :)]]> Mon, 10 Nov 2008 03:11:17 +0000 One thing that would be nice is to keep Ubuntu's current default font, I think. The font there looks like Vista's.]]> Sat, 31 Jan 2009 05:30:14 +0000
http://fc18.deviantart.com/fs31/i/2008/215/e/1/Interpid_Ibex_Mockup_Part_1_by_willwill100.png

Which has pretty much been created bar the gnome do theme and the screenlet. Hardly "theme" central anyway. I'm using it right now and it's great.

DUST, whilst alright, is too dark and several parts aren't well configured meaning you get mis-matching styles - hardly what you need in a uniform theme. Also, it gives you a horrible solid taskbar. I prefer being able to have my taskbar how i want it, not at the dictatorship of a theme. If i try and have it how i want it with DUST i get 3/4's of what i want and then chunky black boxes for the rest. not cool. not sexy.]]> Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:18:24 +0000 ]]> Fri, 13 Mar 2009 23:43:12 +0000 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:26:11 +0000