[Atheist]

I just went to download the latest version of Xcode and was presented with this sign in page:


Check out that early Aqua style button. I remember when I thought that look was cool. In retrospect it's rather garish.

Where you an early Aqua fan?

[Chuckit]

Yes, but those buttons always looked weird and smudgy to me.

[Atheist]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

Yes, but those buttons always looked weird and smudgy to me.

Most definitely. The shadows on the letters was WAY over the top.

[MacosNerd]

Migrating from platinum to aqua, yes they looked "cool" but I agree that they do look garish

[voodoo]

I'd like to see Apple do away with those pill buttons and use something like is in the iPhone interface.

[- - e r i k - -]

Was there ever a drop shadow on the text on actual system buttons or was this a web thing? There was always huge discrepancies between "web-aqua" and system aqua.


DP4


Public Beta


Cheetah (10.0)

[iMOTOR]

Part of me kind of misses the stripes from Jaguar.

[0157988944]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - - 

Was there ever a drop shadow on the text on actual system buttons or was this a web thing? There was always huge discrepancies between "web-aqua" and system aqua.]
Cheetah (10.0)

How do you not see the drop shadow there?

[analogika]

Originally Posted by adamfishercox 

How do you not see the drop shadow there?

In the actual buttons of the Public Beta? I'm having trouble seeing what you're seeing.

[0157988944]

There's drop shadows on the DP4 buttons, on the Public Beta Menu bar, but there are no pill buttons seen in the public beta screenshot.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by adamfishercox 

There's drop shadows on the DP4 buttons, on the Public Beta Menu bar, but there are no pill buttons seen in the public beta screenshot.

There's two in the "Mac Help" window, and the text in them has no drop shadows.

[Powerbook]

Originally Posted by Atheist 

Were you an early Aqua fan?

No, never. I didn't like the GUI and the technical presentation layer (full scale anti-alias) from the first moment. I've always been a fan of the classical OS7, OS8, OS9 pixel-for-pixel style, that's much better for 2D graphic work, DTP etc. I wished they would have brought that sort of GUI into the 21st century...

Regards,
PB.

[64stang06]

[analogika]

I have to admit: I've always really like Aqua. Although I've been very pleased with the way they've toned it down over the years.

[PB2K]

I'm getting fed up with the aqua buttons. i've seen it too much on other people's websites as well.

[l008com]

What we need are some images of graphical widgets from OS 9, System 7, and Windows 95. Lets put things in perspective, and those OS X 10.0 buttons will again look badass :-)

[64stang06]

OS 9:

[Koralatov]

Originally Posted by analogika 

I have to admit: I've always really like Aqua. Although I've been very pleased with the way they've toned it down over the years.

Same here. My one big disappointment was brushed metal in Tiger. I loved the ‘Unified’ theme that was predominant in Preview, Mail, System Preferences and such (a good example of it can be found here). Now, if they’d used that theme system-wide, including Finder and Safari, I would have been a very happy man. I thought it was nigh-on perfect (perhaps because I love pinstripes).

That said, I do like Leopard’s new homogenous interface—whilst it’s less ground-breaking than Aqua was/is, it’s nice to finally have something approaching consistency throughout OSX.

Loathe as I am to agree with John Siracusa, he was pretty much spot on when he said:

Originally Posted by John Siracusa

That's not to say that it was perfect—far from it. Some judged it too bright; the pinstripes were a bit too pronounced; translucency hindered legibility in some areas; the list went on. These flaws were slowly corrected with each subsequent revision of Mac OS X. But while these corrections improved the usability and (usually) the look of the OS, they also compromised the overall aesthetic design. What started as a (flawed) work of genius was patched and filled and tweaked by a committee of pragmatists, rendering it much improved, but considerably less inspired. (Source.)

I think it’s important not to judge Aqua too harshly. Whilst it’s very easy to look back with almost eight years of experience and modification and denounce it as terrible, one has to remember just how incredibly different it was when it was released. I remember seeing it around about the time (still being a Windows ’95 user then) and thinking how incredible it was. Now, I likely wouldn’t be so easily impressed, but then I was blown-away.

[imitchellg5]

I like Panther's Aqua the best. Very refined I think. In fact, I like it so much I use it everyday.

[voodoo]

Originally Posted by 64stang06 

OS 9:

Looks pretty good, considering. I prefer OS X unified look, but that's way better than the atrocity that was Aqua.

Aqua dared to be different, but so did punks.

[64stang06]

System 7:

[lpkmckenna]

I always felt Aqua was too bright. Leopard has finally solved that problem. Before Leopard, I used a hack that changed all windows to Unified, and before that was available I used a hack to make all windows brushed metal. Pin-stripped windows were just too damn bright.

[Koralatov]

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

Before Leopard, I used a hack that changed all windows to Unified, and before that was available I used a hack to make all windows brushed metal. Pin-stripped windows were just too damn bright.

What hack did you use? And where can I find it? I'd really love to get a fully-unified Tiger on the go on my iBook...

[imitchellg5]

I'm guessing he used Uno.

[lpkmckenna]

Yep. Uno.

[Oisín]

I keep expecting this thread to be about Barbie Girl.

[l008com]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

I keep expecting this thread to be about Barbie Girl.

UGH

[Oisín]

^ Exactly. Hence the, “What were they thinking?” part.

[chris v]

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

Yep. Uno.

Uno has made 10.4 quite tolerable. The first thing I did when I got 10.1 (skipped 10.0) was theme away the stripes. Not a big brushed-metal fan, either.

I haven't bought 10.5 yet, but I had a look at it yesterday -- the Finder seems nicely done, interface-wise, though the coverflow bit kind of seems superfluous. It's nice having the alternating bands in list view. Very subtle, but helpful.

[Dakar the Fourth]

Originally Posted by Oisín 

I keep expecting this thread to be about Barbie Girl.

That song makes me smile.

Also the dutch version from the Simpsons.

[Koralatov]

Originally Posted by lpkmckenna 

Yep. Uno.

Damn—I already tried Uno, and I wasn’t too impressed. I thought it was a theme that used Apple’s old ‘Unified’ (really pale with pinstripes) system-wide. Thanks anyway.

[imitchellg5]

There is a Japanese version of Barbie Girl floating around. It is awesome.

[- - e r i k - -]

Originally Posted by Koralatov 

Damn—I already tried Uno, and I wasn’t too impressed. I thought it was a theme that used Apple’s old ‘Unified’ (really pale with pinstripes) system-wide. Thanks anyway.

Uno lets you choose between standard (light) Unified and dark Unified (iLife and Leopard).

[CharlesS]

I'd kind of have to think that the dark Unified would have to be the "standard" theme, since it's the actual system-wide skin and the light Unified isn't.

[- - e r i k - -]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

I'd kind of have to think that the dark Unified would have to be the "standard" theme, since it's the actual system-wide skin and the light Unified isn't.

Uno = Tiger, not Leopard.

There were no system wide skin back then and Dark Unified is not the same as the Leopard skin.

[Cipher13]

It was always pretty damn awful.

Platinum ftw.

[64stang06]

Originally Posted by Cipher13 

It was always pretty damn awful.

Platinum ftw.

I loved platinum. For awhile, I used a Platinum theme for OS X until 10.4 I believe. Gershwix I think?

[real]

wow taken back thanks for the ride.

[ajprice]

Ahhhh, Control Strip!!!

[Dakar the Fourth]

God, I hated the aesthetics of that thing.

Of course, the menubar suffers from the same overloading nowadays.

[CharlesS]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - - 

Uno = Tiger, not Leopard.

There were no system wide skin back then and Dark Unified is not the same as the Leopard skin.

Tiger didn't have a dark unified skin though, did it?

I don't remember one, at least.

[lpkmckenna]

Originally Posted by CharlesS 

Tiger didn't have a dark unified skin though, did it?

I don't remember one, at least.

The latest iLife release was darker than standard unified apps.

[analogika]

Originally Posted by Cipher13 

It was always pretty damn awful.

Platinum ftw.

I always like the slightly lighter tone of System 7 a lot better.
And I always hated the resizable window-borders. Annoying to no end, the goddamn ****ers.

And the Control Strip was just clunky. Always. Somewhat useful, but clunky.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by analogika 

I always like the slightly lighter tone of System 7 a lot better.
And I always hated the resizable window-borders. Annoying to no end, the goddamn ****ers.

And the Control Strip was just clunky. Always. Somewhat useful, but clunky.

Resizable window borders? How did you change their size?

[analogika]

Sorry - meant "grabbable".