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?
Idk, use whatever desktop environment with whatever theming suits you, there’s a seemingly endless supply. and if that really doesn’t work, try to make your own, i guess!
This. OP clearly found a theme that works for them.
I’ve been using i3 with the same GTK theme for several years now. It’s completely tuned to my workflow. I don’t need it to change it anymore. Also, because it’s so customizable, I can literally add features which I want.
idk man I just run stock GNOME and get paid for work.
GNOME is entirely adequate for my professional needs, which is… entirely adequate.
;-)
GNOME is entirely adequate.
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-mailadequate: of a quality that is acceptable but not better than acceptable
The default theme is also adequate for my needs. I don’t even change the wallpaper from the default.
Themes apparently require better than “adequate”.
Use KDE for that. You can customise it how you want, including all the crazy colours you crave. There are a huge ton of exactly those themes and color schemes available, like this one for example, which took me a few seconds to find.
That does look kind of like my current setup. KDE has changed more than I was aware, will have to look deeper…
Edit: I totally forgot XP had the colorful theme by default, I guess my setup is 2000-inspired…
Have you tried just writing everything on paper instead of using a computer?
I have the same problem with modern theming. Absolutely hate the flat, same-dark-color look. I need contrast. Unfortunately, the accessibility “contrast” themes that usually come with most DEs, are absolutely hideous and bare bones. What I need is a normal looking theme (round corners etc), but with a clear difference between title bars/widgets/menu bars in terms of colors. I could make my own back in the old days, but now that it’s all gtk+ API calls code, now it’s unnecessarily complicated.
You can always use Adwaita. Actually it’s my preferred theme. I find the user created ones too flat and unixporn-y.
This really reads to me as “I found a theme that I like and works for me” and to be honest, that’s not an easy task, so well done!
It’s not, it’s I hate the default options presented and the last time I had to the motivation to really do something about it, I had attention span X so I ended up with Y which is better but not by much.
The theme I run is Arc-Darkest with Sardi-Flat-Arc icon theme.
Sway? Cosmic? OpenBox? KDE? Like, look up some DEs, look up themes on Pling, and pick your favorite. Try them out in a VM.
Cinnamon has made opinionated choices based on the majority of their demographic (newbie users). If you aren’t a fan, pick something else.
Thanks, unfortunately my pc’s bones stem from 2008 (building a new one has been on my todo list for…I don’t know…8 years?) so VMs aren’t really an option, installing something on another partition is faster.
I do still have my own openbox config somewhere that’s also beautiful, imo, but not very productive. Never looked at sway or cosmic and didn’t realize KDE changed as much as it did.
It’s a wide world of DEs these days! Good luck.
Can you post a pic of your DE? Im curious to know what your cinnamon looks like.
May I interest you in some nscde2?
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Do you really need a cool usable theme to be productive, whatever the crap that is? Are you 7 years old?
Please read again or comment on where I’m not clear. I’m trying to express about the exact opposite, I don’t really care that much about how visually pleasing it is, I care about how usable it is. That usability is largely defined by contrast, largely because I’m don’t have the eyes of a 7 year old.
