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headache Apprentice
Joined: 26 May 2004 Posts: 226
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Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 5:51 pm Post subject: Why is Gnome so ugly? |
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Before you all bring out the flame throwers and start a barbeque, let me explain:
Both Gnome and Xfce4 is based on the GTK+ toolkit, so they use the same basis for what is drawn on the screen. the problem is that Xfce4 is doing a great job of creating a visually pleasing desktop along with some very nifty apps, while Gnome, which is older and more "developed" than Xfce4 is plain ugly and extremly difficult to make look decent whereas Xfce4 looks decent out of the box.
I think Gnome is in dire need of better and more graphical artists and not just kids with Gimp trying to make even more horrible themes.
Your take?
Oh, and I'm not a newbie to any DE environment or to linux for that matter. Have used Linux as my main OS for 10 years. _________________ "I'd rather have a President who does it to a woman than one who does it to his country" -- Shirley Maclaine
Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others. |
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Lews_Therin l33t
Joined: 03 Oct 2003 Posts: 657 Location: Banned
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Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 6:04 pm Post subject: |
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Have a look through some of the Gnome desktops on the screenshot threads, I'm sure you'll find something you like. |
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MaxDamage l33t
Joined: 03 Jan 2004 Posts: 650 Location: Oviedo, Spain
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Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 6:40 pm Post subject: Re: Why is Gnome so ugly? |
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headache wrote: | I think Gnome is in dire need of better and more graphical artists and not just kids with Gimp trying to make even more horrible themes. |
I totally agree with you. I love Gnome a lot, just liked it since I saw it the first time in a screenshot when I used Windows few years ago. But I don't see a theming scene as for example KDE has. It would be amazing to have a GNOMELook.org Is so difficult to find a GTK+GTK2 theme that looks cool _________________ La PDA de tungsteno |
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fernandotcl Veteran
Joined: 20 Nov 2003 Posts: 1396 Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil
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Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 6:52 pm Post subject: |
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Have you run Fedora? It's an outstanding desktop. Bluecurve is great. |
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MaxDamage l33t
Joined: 03 Jan 2004 Posts: 650 Location: Oviedo, Spain
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Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 7:17 pm Post subject: |
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If you like the redhat artwork you have it in portage:
Code: | * x11-themes/redhat-artwork
Latest version available: 0.73
Latest version installed: 0.73
Size of downloaded files: 9,011 kB
Homepage: http://www.redhat.com/
Description: RedHat's Bluecurve theme for GTK1, GTK2, KDE3, GDM, Metacity and Nautilus |
But my favourite is Ximian's look'n'feel. They include everything integrated, cursors aswell!
Code: | * x11-themes/ximian-artwork
Latest version available: 0.2.26.0.6.1-r1
Latest version installed: 0.2.26.0.6.1-r1
Size of downloaded files: 3,728 kB
Homepage: http://www.ximian.com/xd2/
Description: Ximian Desktop's GTK, Galeon, GDM, Metacity, Nautilus, XMMS themes, icons and cursors. |
_________________ La PDA de tungsteno |
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ralph Advocate
Joined: 02 Mar 2003 Posts: 2001 Location: Hamburg
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Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 7:17 pm Post subject: |
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fernandotcl wrote: | Have you run Fedora? It's an outstanding desktop. Bluecurve is great. |
emerge redhat-artwork
_________________ The computer can't tell you the emotional story. It can give you the exact mathematical design, but what's missing is the eyebrows.
- Frank Zappa |
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zez Apprentice
Joined: 13 Jun 2002 Posts: 256 Location: Oregon, United States
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Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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After kde-look.org started, GNOME launched art.gnome.org. The only problem was that the site was taken down for a while after the GNOME servers were compromised, but now it seems as if it'll be "back soon...," which should be a good thing.
As far as GNOME being ugly, I'm assuming that by ugly you mean the overall appearance including fonts, icons, and themes? |
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Roguelazer Veteran
Joined: 10 Feb 2003 Posts: 1233 Location: San Francisco, CA
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Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 7:30 pm Post subject: |
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I like gnome's look. The "simple" theme is nice, as is a semi-put together by me (I took other peoples' work and combined them) theme (http://www.roguelazer.com/Screenshots/GNOME/Nautilus.jpg for a picture), although most people would disagree with me. _________________ Registered Linux User #263260 |
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Fire-Reiher n00b
Joined: 20 Dec 2002 Posts: 28
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headache Apprentice
Joined: 26 May 2004 Posts: 226
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Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 7:43 pm Post subject: |
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No, I find most of the screenshots in the various screenshot threads severly ugly and appauling.
I have looked at the arts.gnome.org and emergeed the artwork and it's far from art!
It's amazing that 2 DE's that use the same toolkit can be so different in looks.
Sorry guys, to me gnome is incredibly ugly even though I like the GTK toolkit. _________________ "I'd rather have a President who does it to a woman than one who does it to his country" -- Shirley Maclaine
Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others. |
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placeholder Advocate
Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 2500
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Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 7:46 pm Post subject: |
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Look at the GTK theme in my screenshot. It is called Smooth Streak and to me at least it looks awesome as hell. I thought I had an old screenshot from my GNOME using days, but I suppose not, so seeing it in the ROX filer windows and such will have to do. |
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headache Apprentice
Joined: 26 May 2004 Posts: 226
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Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 8:37 pm Post subject: |
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Pwnz3r, Not bad, actually one of the better i have seen. _________________ "I'd rather have a President who does it to a woman than one who does it to his country" -- Shirley Maclaine
Liberal (adj.): Free from bigotry; open to progress; tolerant of others. |
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sn4ip3r Guru
Joined: 14 Dec 2002 Posts: 325 Location: Tallinn, Estonia
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Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 8:56 pm Post subject: |
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I prefer the Digital-Cream theme from here. But I don't use gnome, I prefer ion3 |
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placeholder Advocate
Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 2500
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Posted: Thu May 27, 2004 9:03 pm Post subject: |
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Yeah, and it matches well with my Fluxbox setup as far as the color of the menu goes and stuff. Personally, I don't see where QT or anything else beats the Smooth Streak GTK theme, but that's just me. |
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richk449 Guru
Joined: 24 Oct 2003 Posts: 345
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Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 1:05 am Post subject: GNOME |
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I think I am the only person left in the world who likes the simplicity and cleanliness of GNOME. Both KDE and Xfce4 seem to gaudy to me.
I am a little worried that the next version of GNOME is going be in black and white, since color is too complicated for users. As long as they let me turn it back on though, I will be happy. |
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rndmtask n00b
Joined: 10 Jan 2004 Posts: 66 Location: Earth
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Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 1:09 am Post subject: |
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Pwnz3r it looks like your theme is using the xfce4 theme engine. Personally I hate the look of xfce and I love the simple look of gnome. It can get a little plain over time but for the most part its great. Just different taste I guess. |
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pjp Administrator
Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20421
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Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 2:37 am Post subject: Re: Why is Gnome so ugly? |
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headache wrote: | Xfce4 is doing a great job of creating a visually pleasing desktop [snip] while Gnome [snip] is plain ugly and extremly difficult to make look decent whereas Xfce4 looks decent out of the box. | Everyone is entitled to their opinion. You ask the question as if there were an actual "answer". Your opinion is valid, but it is just that... an opinion.
Personally, I find xfce4 to be the second ugliest environment, surpassed only by KDE. _________________ Quis separabit? Quo animo? |
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Sotol Apprentice
Joined: 09 Apr 2004 Posts: 192
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Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 3:46 am Post subject: Re: Why is Gnome so ugly? |
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headache wrote: |
I think Gnome is in dire need of better and more graphical artists and not just kids with Gimp trying to make even more horrible themes.
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Show me what you think a good looking screenshot is.
Just outta curiosity. |
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placeholder Advocate
Joined: 07 Feb 2004 Posts: 2500
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Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 4:19 am Post subject: |
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rndmtask wrote: | Pwnz3r it looks like your theme is using the xfce4 theme engine. Personally I hate the look of xfce and I love the simple look of gnome. It can get a little plain over time but for the most part its great. Just different taste I guess. |
Actually it's using the smooth GTK engine. I used an Xfce-engine-based theme called Xfce-winter before and it was okay but not as nice as Smooth Streak. I also used Xfce before and all that I can say is that I was perturbed by it. When it comes to the look of my desktop I prefer a theme that combines simplistic colors with a nice design. Probably the same reason that I use the perlgrey cursor theme. |
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Vadatajs Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 11 May 2003 Posts: 89 Location: New York
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Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 2:27 pm Post subject: |
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sn4ip3r wrote: | I prefer the Digital-Cream theme from here. But I don't use gnome, I prefer ion3 |
Very nice. Aluminum Alloy Smog here. _________________ Te occidere possunt sed te erde non possunt nefas est.
so it goes |
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regeya Apprentice
Joined: 28 Jul 2002 Posts: 270 Location: Desoto, IL, USA
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Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 2:37 pm Post subject: |
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Personally, I don't care how damned pretty my desktop is. I care more about how usable my desktop is. Hey, I just switched back to using Bluecurve so obviously I'm not too worried about how pretty the darn thing is. |
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fusibou Tux's lil' helper
Joined: 25 Mar 2003 Posts: 109
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Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 6:10 pm Post subject: |
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My desktop is... a black screen with auto-hiding panels. I spend my time looking at apps and I like Gnome's simple, elegant look that isn't "in my face".
Maybe if you want to sell an operating system on its own (cough-- Windows, Mac-- cough) you have to sell its window dressing as some kind of exciting feature worth $100's but with Open Source, you get it all for free anyway.
This reminds me of car reviews where they describe the look and swish and feel of the car but don't get around to telling you the electrical system dies after the first rain or the tires explode or it rolls over etc. |
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superjaded l33t
Joined: 05 Jul 2002 Posts: 802
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Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 6:46 pm Post subject: Re: Why is Gnome so ugly? |
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headache wrote: | .. Xfce4 looks decent out of the box. |
If you think GNOME looks ugly out of the box, since Xfce uses GTK+, as you say, for its everything besides the window borders, simply use one of the themes that come with Xfce as your "Controls." Apps/Desktop Preferences/Themes/Themes Details/Controls.
GNOME also doesn't force you to use Metacity. I've been using Openbox3 as my WM for the last week or two and I've been liking it.
As other people have said, you're entitled to your opinion and it just so happens that I don't agree with it. I think GNOME's default clean themes (Mist and Simple, for example) are great and for some reason I can't like the gradient happy themes that seem to be a mark of a lot of Xfce themes in comparison.
FWIW, I've been using Lila-based themes as of late. Although at the moment I'm using Lila-Simple as my GTK+ theme and winter-GTK+OB3 for by OB3 theme.
It would probably be a lot more helpful if you actually SAID what it is you don't like about GNOME's overall look and feel. You obviously seem to have a thing for gradients. I don't, personally, but I guess you probably want themes based on the smooth or xfce engines. Perhaps check out the Lila thread in Gentoo Chat. It has a GTK+ theme based on the Xfce with gradients here and there.
Also, are there any themes you like on here? Emerge gnome-themes-extras if you do. |
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ed0n l33t
Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 638 Location: Prishtine/Kosove
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Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 6:54 pm Post subject: |
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yes...
Gnome can be beautiful. |
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IvanHoe l33t
Joined: 05 Oct 2002 Posts: 658
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Posted: Fri May 28, 2004 11:42 pm Post subject: |
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headache wrote: | Before you all bring out the flame throwers and start a barbeque, let me explain:
Both Gnome and Xfce4 is based on the GTK+ toolkit, so they use the same basis for what is drawn on the screen. the problem is that Xfce4 is doing a great job of creating a visually pleasing desktop along with some very nifty apps, while Gnome, which is older and more "developed" than Xfce4 is plain ugly and extremly difficult to make look decent whereas Xfce4 looks decent out of the box.
I think Gnome is in dire need of better and more graphical artists and not just kids with Gimp trying to make even more horrible themes.
Your take?
Oh, and I'm not a newbie to any DE environment or to linux for that matter. Have used Linux as my main OS for 10 years. |
I personally think that KDE and Xfce4 are totally ugly (and very difficult to make even acceptable). However, I feel that the default look of Gnome is clean, simple and absolutely beautiful.
So, I guess it a matter of ones own personal taste, right? |
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