Don’t get me wrong, the average X-interface looks great. Some are absolutely stunning. But, in my opinion usability has gone down the toilet. Almost everything that should be a clear distinction is displayed in shades of the same color, including icons.
I’m now running an XP-inspired theme on cinnamon so I at least have some functionality (e.g. title bar in a different color, buttons with clear borders, etc). I wish I wouldn’t need to, to have a productive interface. I wish for something beautiful and productive.
Seeing screenshots of someones Aero-inspired Steam-mockup inspired me to make this post. I found it attractive while I hated Aero when it came out and never used it (it was around the time I switched to Linux). Is there any theme/window manager/setup I should be looking at that I obviously haven’t?
Yes it is except when it isn’t. Maybe there’s a reason practically no Adwaita theme alternatives ship with Debian. Maybe not. But, using Gnome, it’s the default theme or nothing. I have to admit I don’t know from themes. However, there are lots of Gnome themes available from theme peddlers.
Recently I became fed to the teeth with claws-mail, which is a GTK app. In Adwaita the foreground font color is too dark (gray) on top of the background highlight (blue). My eyesight had deteriorated to the point that I just couldn’t read the Subject of the current eMail, so I shopped for a new theme that would be … adequate. I didn’t have time to try them all.
I settled on Ant by EliverLara. In this theme foreground font color (white) on background highlight (salmon) is just barely visible. I use it only for claws-mail:
> env GTK_THEME=Ant claws-mailThe default theme is also adequate for my needs. I don’t even change the wallpaper from the default.
Themes apparently require better than “adequate”.