[DigitalEl]

I drooled over Brushed 3.

I whined for Studio Pro.

But I always come back to SmoothStripes (Gloss).

There's just something about that milky white Aqua done right. It's just so perfect.

Just wondering if anyone else eagerly awaits a new theme... Almost like a second grader holding his "thingy" and doing the pee-pee dance because he's gotta go so bad... Only to revert to an old favourite just a couple of weeks later.

What's up with that?

(Thanks Max. Thanks Swiz.)

[CarbonG4]

DigitalEl
What's up with that?

Misoneism... the fear of change.

//Carbon

[Powaqqatsi]

I even use Rhapsodized. retro.

[DigitalEl]

Misoneism... the fear of change.

Who fears change? I've tried every theme that appealed to me. If I feared change, I wouldn't install themes at all, thinking they'd FUBAR my system.

BTW, I didn't mean to offend any other themers.

[mac15]

I'm love it but there is still something that bring me back to aqua. I love it. Its still damn pretty to look out.

We still need an Os6 theme

[ubba]

I'm waiting a thread like this from long time. So I can understand that it's not a "my problem". I tried all themes (or so) but always I come back to Aqua. I think that there is something that prevent a Mac User to leave Apple GUI. There is a lot of people which use constantly themes but they use SmoothStripes (Aqua w/o stripes and an advanced Aqua in Gloss version) SimpleAqua (such as SStripes), Rhapsodized (similar to OS 9) and Milk which is justified because it's very fit for Macs with snow case.
Every time I try a new theme (and there are many wonderful themes which I like too much) in the evening I switch back to Aqua. I don't know why and the ridicoulus is that I'm very tired by Aqua.


.....
jo

[Zimphire]

I haven't used Aqua since I put together Simple Aqua. I can't stand those stripes. I never could.

[Stuphalina]

I agree with Zimphire and I do revert back to my old favorite most of the time; milk. I just love how smooth it is.

[Sage]

Same here. I've downloaded almost every single theme out there, including most of the Japanese themes, and end up just deleting them (this isn't very productive, since I'm on dialup and have download speeds of only 2.5-3.0 kb/s! ).

Like most people, for the longest time, I'd always revert back to SmoothStripes. When SS Blue Widgets came out, I then always reverted to that.

I have a new darling though now... Studio Pro. Yes, it doesn't provide the same nice integrated look as SmoothStripes does, but the nice thing about Studio Pro is that it's a semi-dark theme, which is what I need... Sometimes I work into the night, and having the bright white Aqua windows glaring at you really hurts the eyes. But Studio Pro is nice in that its dark enough that it doesn't hurt your eyes at all, but light enough that it doesn't look bad in Aqua's restrictive environment (shame about Shinobi... such a clever theme!).

Eh, that's probably more than any of you wanted to hear, but yeah...

[Zimphire]

The very first version of Simple Aqua I made back before the public beta days was a bit darker, I have a version of it now that is darker than the original I have out, but I am waiting on Panther to see what is going on before I release or start anymore themes.

Right now I am happy with SimpleAqua , well as happy as one can be with the theme limitations in OS X.

[bbxstudio]

Here here - even with my own themebuilds I have to switch back to Aqua sometimes. I think there are a few reasons why Aqua will always be hard to beat...

1. It's damned slick - you're looking at thousands of man hours of tweaking and perfection (not to mention a million mental impressions from Apple's marketing)

2. It's complete - everything is Aquafied - everything sings together and fits so nicely together)

3. Competing or subsequent themes must be squeezed into Aqua's footprint - and therefore don't quite look right because they're not Aqua. Things like no borders or edges work with Aqua but precious little else - 99% of themes are unavoidably Aqua-ish.

4. To make an overall 'skin' for the entire OS that would trick your brain into thinking it wasn't squeezed into Aqua would take some serious time and effort (not to mention some serious trickery that hasn't been discovered/developed yet), the kind of time a theme designer isn't going to want to invest for the most part - you'll always have bits of Aqua hanging around to remind you of the source

5. Aqua is one of the few 'looks' that works with that hideous LucidaGrande font Apple uses. Faking in fonts with Silk will only take you so far away from it and you have to deal with unsightly shifting and incompatibilities.

6. Aqua just rocks. They did a seriously good job whipping up something that really is appealing to most people. Sick but true.

7. Perhaps most importantly - theme designers are caught between producing something simple and minimalist but eye-catching enough so as not be dismissed as boring. Walking this fine line between usability and eye-candy is harder than you think. Eye-candy (read visual masturbation) is a seductive thing for a theme designer - constantly having to sacrifice the totally cool bits for the sake of simplicity gets hard when you've been looking at the same design for weeks or months and it's all become a blur.

My 2�

[FB Eye]

Back in the days, I would always go back to Sosumi... don't know why, but I always missed it after a few days... Zimphire, if you read this, please release a 10.2.6 compatible version... not the updated one you're working on, but the good ol' one, made compatible...

For now, I'm using BBX Mercury... slick

[blackbird_1.0]

i honestly believe apple kept osx simiar to classic because of this, many mac users preferred the classic look and feel, me? i prefer the next/openstep look

i've tries thems and dockskins, but none have come close to what i want

[zazou]

It comes down to a consistency thing!

Now matter how cool the themes are there is always some hard coded Aqua elements...even from Apple.

It just takes the wonderful simplicity of using the OS and yells at you every once in a while with a 'LOOK, I"M AQUA' widget or tab or something that stands out like a sore thumb!

Smooth Stripes is great because it is a 'makeover' more than a theme and does not try to fly in the face of Aqua.

T

[NetworkShadow]

It's SS TuXedo or BBX Mercury X for me, I used smooth strips once for a bit, SS pro for a bit, but I always go back to TuXedo or BBX Mercury. They both are so different from any other themes, and are so well designed. I hope my list of favorite themes gets bigger though, and I have a feeling that the new BBX themes will be in that list.

[bbxstudio]

Originally posted by NetworkShadow:
They both are so different from any other themes, and are so well designed. I hope my list of favorite themes gets bigger though, and I have a feeling that the new BBX themes will be in that list.

Well, they are different - I'll give you that Probably not a good idea to invest too much faith in something you've never seen, though.

[Beer Penguin]

I could see myself using smoothstripes if I had to, but I honestly think aqua is one of the ugliest themes ever made. In fact, I have an extremely hard time using a system that hasn't been themed, and I would probably switch back to OS 9 if themes didn't exist for OS X.

[quandarry]

wow...now i'm depressed...i'm finally getting a theme completed thanks to the new themepark and swizz's and max's photoshop actions...and almost everyone uses some sort of aqua...dang!

well maybe i'll dig out a few aqua based themes from my dead theme folder and have a go at them...

to tell you the truth i too prefer aqua variants...i use my own tho...anyone rememeber "golden delicious"...i got soundly trounced for that one...ouch!

and i have "alphabondi", "alphawine", "whitemetal" "snow" and others all aqua based...

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by bbxstudio:

5. Aqua is one of the few 'looks' that works with that hideous LucidaGrande font Apple uses. Faking in fonts with Silk will only take you so far away from it and you have to deal with unsightly shifting and incompatibilities.

Hey I like Lucida.

[mrfrost]

Originally posted by Stuphalina:
I agree with Zimphire and I do revert back to my old favorite most of the time; milk. I just love how smooth it is.

Same here, I like a lot of themes but I "love" this one.

[fisherKing]

i think i saw the default theme for about 3 days...then started checking out the custom themes.

swiz's studiopro is my current fave, but... i can't run it because the scrollbar "springs" back in the finder & some apps...

my other fave is brushed3 (to which i added black translucent menus)


viva la themers!!

[n8x]

Ick, I can't stand aqua. It's too bright and flashy.. I prefer nice simple themes like QNX and FatalE.

Sure wish FatalE didn't have that springing-back-scrollbar bug..

[gdiddy]

I haven't used Aqua since I used SmoothStripes. I can't stand those stripes. I never could.

[1c3]

I love MILK!!!! thx for a great theme Max!

[Mac Guru]

I prefer nice simple themes like QNX

You rock

Oh and, as soon as the Fall rolls around there will be a new release of QNX with all directions of Tabs done and a new menu select look as well as some smaller tweaks.

Mac Guru

[mrtew]

I haven't used Aqua or any theme that resembles Aqua (unless you count brushed) for two years. It could have been a pretty cool 'theme' but it's totally ruined by the stripes and that particular shade of aqua blue that clashes sooooooooooo badly with the traffic lights. Also I think I burned out on it as an OS9 appearance (which actually looks better than the 'original' long before OSX even came out. Thank GOD for theming.... I hope I never have to use Aqua again. (I am dreading the first few theme deprived weeks after panther comes out).