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cant stand aqua
- Thread starter Megaquad
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I'm at my computer screen 5 days a week and Aqua, which I initially hated, is *so much* easier on the eyes than Platinum is. Aqua is great, just takes some getting used to. Stick to it for a month and then tell me that you want to use platinum...
Alex. Seriously, I can understand your position, but every person that uses XP that I know uses the old interface with it. If Apple would have put that crap on X, and I could not change it, then I would have ran in 9 until they would let us change it, or frankly, I would have switched to a PC when Microsoft copied it.
The XP interface is clunky, too large, and a pain.
The XP interface is clunky, too large, and a pain.
I think the ergonomics of the interface are alright - not as good as OS X's, but alright. Some of the ergonomic decisions Microsoft made are just really stupid (like, why fade pull-down menus in and not out?), but that's a different story. It's the visual design of Luna that I like. It's very modern-looking, it's colorful and fun and alive. I like the large widgets, but that's probably because the resolutions I use are kind of high... I can imagine they would be less than ideal on lower res screens. (Can't their sizes be changed, though?)
On the other hand, I do think that the ability to change the GUI's appearance is a good thing. Some people hate Luna and that's fine - they're lucky to have the ability to change it built into the OS. I guess with Duality it's kind of irrelevant, but I wish Duality were better-known or maybe even official. I don't personally mind Aqua, but I wish those who don't like it (like Megaquad) knew that it was possible to change, because everyone has different tastes, especially when it comes to these radical new GUI themes.
Alex
That qualifies as half-assed... Boot from the cd, and run all of NUM (disk doc. and speed disk). I never install it on any OS 9 system, ever. The ONLY thing, of theirs, to install is NAV.
If you picked up NSW2, it comes with a version of Disk Warrior (DiskWarrior® Recovery Edition). I have only used the full-blown version of Disk Warrior 2, as well as TechTool Pro 3, both of which fix all the things that NUM cannot (or does a better job on).
Did the fsck -y come up with anything???
microsoft aqua....although it would look pretty silly on hardware that doesnt have the same look
on thing that really gets me is how the curvy edges on XP windows aren't anti-aliased. it just looks so cheap....like a really poorly designed web page.
also, blue and green just do not go for something like that....way too much contrast. silver is better, it looks cleaner, but there are still areas of the OS that look cheap. the login/logout screen has lots of cheap looking gradients...overall I think that they could have gone into a little more detail if they really wanted it to look nice.
as for apple's pinstripes, I dunno why this is such a problem for people. you basically never see them in great quantities unless you open up system prefs or mail or someting else....i gues i just done use these things too much
iMac 350 blueberry and OSX
why do we take this seriously at all?
but anyway, here goes.
this baby only has 8MB of video ram, although I know 10.1.5 is not taking advantage of this sad video card etc, (or is it, someone can clarify) it is still not bad in general use. If it scrolld any faster I would lose my place.
I just popped in another 256MB of ram for a total of 512. It is okay.
I love OSX and have used Macs for ten years and it keeps getting better. I don't like the blue or the stripes either, So I CHANGED THEM. get duality and check the themes available. I just ran Norton defrag, (from the disk, in Japanese, scary if you don't read Kanji) everthing is much snappier. But it is 3 years old! I don't expect it to run at warp speed. I checked out some new G4s at a shop, everything happens instantly.
The only issue i have is IE 5.2 crashes on launch, the solution? Mozilla!
I don't know what you mean by slow switching between apps, if they are running, they switch instantly. If not they start up in the background, in two bounces, which i killed with dock detox.
So if you can afford it, max out your ram and keep it tuned up, you can get a few more miles out of that 3 yr old. Jaguar will unfortunatly make it obsolete, it will run but you won't get to take advantage of the hardware video improvements (Quartz extreme)
why do we take this seriously at all?
but anyway, here goes.
this baby only has 8MB of video ram, although I know 10.1.5 is not taking advantage of this sad video card etc, (or is it, someone can clarify) it is still not bad in general use. If it scrolld any faster I would lose my place.
I just popped in another 256MB of ram for a total of 512. It is okay.
I love OSX and have used Macs for ten years and it keeps getting better. I don't like the blue or the stripes either, So I CHANGED THEM. get duality and check the themes available. I just ran Norton defrag, (from the disk, in Japanese, scary if you don't read Kanji) everthing is much snappier. But it is 3 years old! I don't expect it to run at warp speed. I checked out some new G4s at a shop, everything happens instantly.
The only issue i have is IE 5.2 crashes on launch, the solution? Mozilla!
I don't know what you mean by slow switching between apps, if they are running, they switch instantly. If not they start up in the background, in two bounces, which i killed with dock detox.
So if you can afford it, max out your ram and keep it tuned up, you can get a few more miles out of that 3 yr old. Jaguar will unfortunatly make it obsolete, it will run but you won't get to take advantage of the hardware video improvements (Quartz extreme)
Here's an interesting thing to think about:
If you go under google and search for an XP theme that will work on a Mac, you won't find it. Believe me, I tried to find it.
But if you reverse that and look for a Mac OS X theme for Windows XP. You find it. There's even some that were taken down by Apple.
Right now, I'm on a Windoze PC running Xp, what was the first thing I did? Change the GUI, it looks like my iBook... too bad it doesn't run like it, though. But my point to this whole response is that a lot of Windows users will state that Aqua is far better than Luna, so much better that Wintel folks will make a theme just to emulate it.
If you go under google and search for an XP theme that will work on a Mac, you won't find it. Believe me, I tried to find it.
But if you reverse that and look for a Mac OS X theme for Windows XP. You find it. There's even some that were taken down by Apple.
Right now, I'm on a Windoze PC running Xp, what was the first thing I did? Change the GUI, it looks like my iBook... too bad it doesn't run like it, though. But my point to this whole response is that a lot of Windows users will state that Aqua is far better than Luna, so much better that Wintel folks will make a theme just to emulate it.
Themes... a la Extras.rsrc
Okay first off I use the AlumiteX theme... futuristic, easy to look at, very functional and intuitive to me as far as that goes. Get it here:
http://www.stretch.tc/aquaworld/themes/themes.html
now for those of you who have tried apps like Duality or Themer, etc. Stop. They have corrupted many peoples systems and it can be a real pain to get everything back to normal without reinstalling your system.
Follow this tip from a poster at Versiontracker instead.
" I beg you DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS APP (Themer:Anche)... instead do this: 1) Open Terminal application ... 2) Copy and paste this: "cp /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HiToolbox.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Extras.rsrc ~/Documents" (without quotes) and press Enter. [This makes a copy of the Aqua Extras.rsrc file into your home's Documents folder. Keep it.] ... 3) Type "sudo cp" (without quotes) and a single space ... 4) Drag the new theme's Extras.rsrc file into the Terminal window and drop ... another space.. 5) Copy and paste this: "/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HiToolbox.framework/Versions/A/Resources" (without quotes) and press Enter ... 6) Enter your administrator password and press Enter ... 7) log out and log in , thank yourself and enjoy your new theme. To go back to Aqua repeat process using your saved Aqua copy of Extras.rsrc. "
It is a very simple and straight forward way to change your theme. Most importantly you know what you did and can undo it.
Barring that make sure to use a Backup utility before you switch themes with shareware/freeware.
Personally Aqua was nice for a while and I may go back to it for Jaguar, just to see what Apple has done with it. Until then I love AlumiteX on my TiG4, it just looks and feels 'right'.
Finally, never underestimate the power of RAM. Fill your machine up with as much as possible. 2GB if you can. If your machine has a 133 mhz bus then make sure you get PC133 RAM, if not get the PC100 equivalent. When we get new Powermacs and Laptops with DDR support get as much of the fastest RAM you can. It really does make all the difference. Video RAM is just as important, especially in today's non-GPU accelerated world on OS X... Jaguar should change all this but until then and even after, get RAM.
Your hard disk is in the end the ultimate speed bottleneck. By the fastest Hard drive you can for your system. Store stuff on a big lumbering drive if you need space and can't afford speed, but buy a smaller 10 - 20 GB drive with a speed rating of 7200 RPMs or more for your OS install and with the fastest supported transfer rates, eg. ATA 100, 133, 166 where higher number is better.
All of these hardware considerations are OS agnostic. What works for a OS X works for Windows works for Solaris works for RedHat Linux.
Hardware is hardware and the faster it is the faster your OS will run. A Computer is made up of components so they all have to be fast for it to realize it's potential. This is what the X86/PC world has been getting for the last 2 years that we have been missing.
Our CPUs are great but the rest of the system is way behind. Response rates for a PC can be 4x as fast because their bus speeds are 2x as fast and their RAM speeds are 2x as fast, this is now standard and improving every month.
They get faster components because the manufacturers can recoup their investment in R & D by selling much larger quantities in a given time. Macs usually end up with a better product though because we get ours after the R & D has been perfected to allow for more efffective processes and higher quality returns, but we have to wait for it. This happens with all technology.
Strangely though Apple seems to be the company to innovate new tech while the PC world implements the performance improvement part much more rapidly.
God that was a long post. Oh well. I feel better for having put it out there after reading so much uneducated commentary.
Okay first off I use the AlumiteX theme... futuristic, easy to look at, very functional and intuitive to me as far as that goes. Get it here:
http://www.stretch.tc/aquaworld/themes/themes.html
now for those of you who have tried apps like Duality or Themer, etc. Stop. They have corrupted many peoples systems and it can be a real pain to get everything back to normal without reinstalling your system.
Follow this tip from a poster at Versiontracker instead.
" I beg you DO NOT DOWNLOAD THIS APP (Themer:Anche)... instead do this: 1) Open Terminal application ... 2) Copy and paste this: "cp /System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HiToolbox.framework/Versions/A/Resources/Extras.rsrc ~/Documents" (without quotes) and press Enter. [This makes a copy of the Aqua Extras.rsrc file into your home's Documents folder. Keep it.] ... 3) Type "sudo cp" (without quotes) and a single space ... 4) Drag the new theme's Extras.rsrc file into the Terminal window and drop ... another space.. 5) Copy and paste this: "/System/Library/Frameworks/Carbon.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/HiToolbox.framework/Versions/A/Resources" (without quotes) and press Enter ... 6) Enter your administrator password and press Enter ... 7) log out and log in , thank yourself and enjoy your new theme. To go back to Aqua repeat process using your saved Aqua copy of Extras.rsrc. "
It is a very simple and straight forward way to change your theme. Most importantly you know what you did and can undo it.
Barring that make sure to use a Backup utility before you switch themes with shareware/freeware.
Personally Aqua was nice for a while and I may go back to it for Jaguar, just to see what Apple has done with it. Until then I love AlumiteX on my TiG4, it just looks and feels 'right'.
Finally, never underestimate the power of RAM. Fill your machine up with as much as possible. 2GB if you can. If your machine has a 133 mhz bus then make sure you get PC133 RAM, if not get the PC100 equivalent. When we get new Powermacs and Laptops with DDR support get as much of the fastest RAM you can. It really does make all the difference. Video RAM is just as important, especially in today's non-GPU accelerated world on OS X... Jaguar should change all this but until then and even after, get RAM.
Your hard disk is in the end the ultimate speed bottleneck. By the fastest Hard drive you can for your system. Store stuff on a big lumbering drive if you need space and can't afford speed, but buy a smaller 10 - 20 GB drive with a speed rating of 7200 RPMs or more for your OS install and with the fastest supported transfer rates, eg. ATA 100, 133, 166 where higher number is better.
All of these hardware considerations are OS agnostic. What works for a OS X works for Windows works for Solaris works for RedHat Linux.
Hardware is hardware and the faster it is the faster your OS will run. A Computer is made up of components so they all have to be fast for it to realize it's potential. This is what the X86/PC world has been getting for the last 2 years that we have been missing.
Our CPUs are great but the rest of the system is way behind. Response rates for a PC can be 4x as fast because their bus speeds are 2x as fast and their RAM speeds are 2x as fast, this is now standard and improving every month.
They get faster components because the manufacturers can recoup their investment in R & D by selling much larger quantities in a given time. Macs usually end up with a better product though because we get ours after the R & D has been perfected to allow for more efffective processes and higher quality returns, but we have to wait for it. This happens with all technology.
Strangely though Apple seems to be the company to innovate new tech while the PC world implements the performance improvement part much more rapidly.
God that was a long post. Oh well. I feel better for having put it out there after reading so much uneducated commentary.
I need to ask... why??? Why make OS X look like heXPee??? I prefer to have OS X look like OS X and the peecee look like a peecee... Color me a freak, but I think each should be easily identified.
Originally posted by AlphaTech
I need to ask... why??? Why make OS X look like heXPee??? I prefer to have OS X look like OS X and the peecee look like a peecee... Color me a freak, but I think each should be easily identified.
Well, I got one PC and I changed that horrible XP theme to OSX. It's better on the eyes
Making OS X look like XP, I would never do. I was gonna do it to a friends mac to see what he would do, though....hehehehe. I'm still amazed that someone made the theme