Mac OS X Theme Change in Leopard Seed 9A410

[pengu]

maybe it IS just a placeholder.. but no one else has gone far enough..

i think, that its the "default" like the old Win2000 style in XP/Vista, and if you have a mildly-recent mac, you'll get a cool CoreAnimation effect: TRUE Aqua.

The whole window is a big puddle, and it ripples and shimmers in reaction to the way you move it. if you leave it alone (ie, screensaver timeout) some little ducks will land and start swimming about.. the windows in the background might start to ice-over the longer they are in-active (that would give a whole new concept to that Burning app that makes smoke, eh? )

and if you have your location configured in sys. preferences, the water will react to the outside weather.. so if it's raining, it will rain, and obviously ripple. if its snowing it will get "colder" and become more sluggish as it approaches freezing... i guess if its snowing you'd get bears or reindeer ice-skating instead of ducks? or maybe the ducks just drop from the "sky" frozen...

 

[netdog]

I really like the new look.

Much less garish than brushed metal. Glad to see that Apple is going in the opposite direction from Microsoft with their VistaVideoGame look.

 

[iMikeT]

Ouch, so many negatives!

Were people really expecting an overhaul of Finder?

 

[2Shae]

it looks more like the UNO theme changer

and ps: it's very ugly

 

[ATG]

All I can say is...

NO MORE PINSTRIPES!!!!!

I think the way how they've used polished metal for foreground windows and unified aqua for background windows is plain ugly. If it was a slightly darker unified then it would be nice. But this is too far.

 

[Evangelion]

Not to bash Linux or anything, but it's complicated. It's extremely customizable at a price. And it's also free at a price. It takes more time to set it up.

No, and no. While Linux _can_ be complicated, Ubuntu most certainly is not. Ubuntu is in fact very, very simple and easy to use and manage. As to "it takes more time to set up"... Well, it takes about 30-40 minutes to install and set up, and that install includes the OS and all the productivity-apps you could wish for.

 

[willybNL]

Time to switch to vista?

Finder still doesn't have any traces of:

- Adressbar
- Cut-option

Time to switch to vista? At least it's explorer has these basic capabilities... When using finder as filemanager it fails on these really important points.

 

[ccn]

Finder still doesn't have any traces of:

- Adressbar
- Cut-option

Time to switch to vista? At least it's explorer has these basic capabilities... When using finder as filemanager it fails on these really important points.

Well, I'm not sure why you'd want an address bar as it's not useful in everyday usage, but if you really want one just hit Command-Shift-G (or Go: Go To Folder…) and Finder will bring up an address bar entry. You can also command click on the name of the window and it will show you your current location and also allow you to go up any directory (similar to command-up/down arrow). Finally, you can drag the icon at the top of the window next to the window name over to other apps or text fields and it will automatically paste your current address there. Is this serious?

Now, the cut option? OK, now I'm starting to think this posting is being sarcastic You can Command-X/Command-C then Command-V, just like with windows and ctrl-x/c/v.

 

[pengu]

Finder still doesn't have any traces of:

- Adressbar
- Cut-option

Time to switch to vista? At least it's explorer has these basic capabilities... When using finder as filemanager it fails on these really important points.

actually it has both.

hit Shift-Command G and u get a "go to" dialog.

and if u want "Cut", use Onyx and enable the option in the finder. but note that it is literally a cut, and it doesnt operate with "Paste".

 

[aLoC]

I don't like it. There's no need for a big thick grey box at the top of evey window.

With all the 3D tricks available in graphics frameworks today it should be possible to do windows with nice subtle thin borders, and use other visual tricks to keep them separated. (and I don't mean Vista style, who still have thick, ugly borders, but see-through).

 

[BobbyDigital]

looks unfinished... i don't think this will be the final UI.

 

[Jarcrew]

I really like it.

 

[72930]

Now, the cut option? OK, now I'm starting to think this posting is being sarcastic You can Command-X/Command-C then Command-V, just like with windows and ctrl-x/c/v.

You cannot Command-X then Command-V a file in Finder...

 

[ccn]

You cannot Command-X then Command-V a file in Finder...

Whoops, you're right. Command-C, Command-V works. I always use Command-Delete whenever I want to delete a file, so I guess I never used this. Either way, this is not a reason to switch to vista

 

[surferfromuk]

When are we going to see a black turtleneck, sneakers and blue jeans theme ?

 

[3nm]

i don't need any wow but this looks uber boring... ...

but then again i'll still be using shaftshifter anyways, so fugly UI doesn't really matter.

 

[Agathon]

Why are people worried?

Apple has been deliberately secretive about Leopard. All we have seen are numerous "goodies" that go with the OS. Apple has deliberately refrained from talking up Leopard's core features. This was not so with Panther or Tiger. There's obviously some cool stuff being kept back. I can't say that I dislike the new theme, although I don't really care. I thought I would never like a brushed metal Finder, but I don't even notice it now.

I don't see why they should hurry with the release either. If Windows Vista had proved to be a superb Tiger-beating OS, then perhaps. But Vista has turned out to be a disappointment, so there is no pressure. That's not to say that Vista will be a financial failure, but it is a technological failure. They had five years and couldn't come up with something as good as Tiger.

Why not wait a few more months and release something that is so far ahead of Windows that there will no longer be any reasonable arguments on the topic.

If you want a good idea as to what Apple is doing, then look at the way they usually operate. They will introduce some feature in an app, and then decide that a global implementation makes sense. Hence the iTunes like Spotlight interface in the screenshots. Core Animation will be at the heart of the new interface, but if they are true to form, Apple will use it in a restrained but brilliant way, and show up Microsoft's GUI designers yet again.

 

[toughboy]

Guys, you obviously don't understand, it takes months to remove the brushed metal effect. Each window must be hand buffed and finished until it's perfectly smooth.

 

[Stridder44]

I was expect more... this is pretty much UNO...

Pretty much?? This looks exactly like UNO. I'd hardly call this a UI change.

 

[xUKHCx]

I guess I don't really see Apple going all out with customizable themes, as I feel like they like to have a unified look to the Mac... that being said, core-animation is very cool, and it seems they could do some crazy stuff for it.

like daytime/nighttime effects or whatever in real time.

arn

Emphasis mine.

That would be extremely cool.

I'm currently working on a small applescript/terminal progam to change the desktop backgorund based on the time of day and the weather selecting approprate images from a database of Transparent backgrounds. Example given below (my iMac is in front of a window so the lighting and weather have a large effect of what should be shown on the screen.)

Also do Mods/Gods know when people quote them or do they have to read everything

 

[Counter]

I suppose personally I am feeling the brunt of this and am a bit bitter since I like Apple because of their OS, and I still use a G4 powermac so I have that "left behind" thing going on. I watch flash videos every day and flash sucks on a mac and I wish they would fix it and so I hope with every release of OS X that it will be fixed but alas it is not

There is something weird with flash video on G4's. My G4 400 plays dvd's full screen no problem. High res mpegs, avi's etc also smoothly by dropping the odd frame here and there. But flash video only at YouTube size is on edge if it will play smoothly or not. Never seems to play as smooth and fluent as it should.

 

[BenRoethig]

For everyone who says this gray theme is ugly, don't worry about it. Think of it as a primer coat. The new theme will be unveiled at WWDC.

 

[cheunghy]

Little mockup

Hoping for a brand new UI in Leopard...

I created a little mockup in Photoshop today.
I know, I know, there are no 'Close', 'Zoom' and 'Minimize' buttons yet, and it looks much like Vista... Just don't take this too seriously...

 

[mark88]

Looks like pinstripe has gone too looking at the open dialog.

This new look is too dark, Mail looked better in unifed aqua instead of dark. Reminds me of windowx classic. http://mywebpages.comcast.net/SupportCD/Images/Windows_Vista_Classic_Visual_Style_HiRes.gif

 

[Butters]

Hoping for a brand new UI in Leopard...

I created a little mockup in Photoshop today.
I know, I know, there are no 'Close', 'Zoom' and 'Minimize' buttons yet, and it looks much like Vista... Just don't take this too seriously...

I see what your getting at with your mock up
I quite like the look of the buttons and drop down select menus

the transparancy is too vista though and the menu bar would look much better just left as is it is now I think