How does a green Start button make you more productive?
It’s just another feature, one that you can probably turn off.
I’m turning the whole thing off, except for the cheapest $300 Dell it comes on so we can mess with it and learn to fix it. :lol: Hell, by the time it comes out, the cheapest Dell will probably be $200 or so…
Translucent windows can be useful if implemented properly. Apple has scaled back translucent windows considerably in OS X, so the effect is often so subtle you don’t realize it’s there. A good use is in the Apple DVD Player and iPhoto, where you have control panels that let you see the video/image behind them as you’re making changes.
Hopefully MS will learn from Apple’s mistakes and implement translucent windows correctly. (haha, right.)
Where did you come by the bizarre impression that the sole purpose of an OS was to make you be more productive?
Where did you come by the bizarre impression that the sole purpose of an OS was to make you be more productive?[/quote]
So translucent windows are just inherently cool, and that’s their only selling point? That’s a serious question btw… I’m genuinely puzzled by why I’d want translucent windows.
So you can see what’s behind them. Ever tried to enter data from one window to another by hand? It’s annoying.
Is it a big move in productivity? No. When was the last time any OS gave us a great leap in productivity?
Where did you come by the bizarre impression that the sole purpose of an OS was to make you be more productive?[/quote]
I don’t think this argument is going to work with your average CIO. And MS needs those business upgrades.
Fair enough, thank you.
Where did you come by the bizarre impression that the sole purpose of an OS was to make you be more productive?[/quote]
So translucent windows are just inherently cool, and that’s their only selling point? That’s a serious question btw… I’m genuinely puzzled by why I’d want translucent windows.[/quote]
Yeah, basically. I think MacOSX has proven that pretty flashy OS whiz-bang gizmos that bring very little actual functionality make a certain subset of the population happy.
Though I do wonder about folks proclaiming they don’t care how things look. I stare at a computer approximately 12 hours a day between work and what I do for fun at home; I sure as hell want it to be prettier. If Windows enables that some innately, good for them. (To be honest, XP is a lot better than previous versions, but still not visually interesting enough not to need Windowblinds or something else to make it less painful to look at. But then, I find OSX eye-gougingly ugly too, albeit in a slick, nice modern design type of way.)
I hope they do a good job integrating 64 bit support. I’d love a new and more functional filesystem, along with a more robust network layer (one which doesn’t stall all fucking I/O whenever there’s a block on a network opening a port, or whatever makes my entire computer freeze when trying to open a website that’s slow to respond) and some all around general improvements (real defrag anyone?), but 95% of the time what I and 95% of the windows users out there get out of our computers is a visual interface that allow us to do the same damn thing over and over. Given that I don’t think there’s a whole lot of room in GUI design to really up the efficiency of the basic design, I think there are probably lots of people who just want it to look nicer and be more interesting while they’re going through their rote list of tasks between logging in and getting into the program they need at the moment.
Where did you come by the bizarre impression that the sole purpose of an OS was to make you be more productive?[/quote]
I don’t think this argument is going to work with your average CIO. And MS needs those business upgrades.[/quote]
64 bit code and the promise of upgraded other stuff will work for your average CIO. MS generally isn’t looking to sell desk copies to your average CIO anyway; that money comes off the server back end. It’s too costly to upgrade 500+ terminals (not in terms of software costs; that’s pissant pocket change. But in terms of lost productivity with the inevitable bugs/glitches/changes in interface/etc…). A new copy of Longhorn Server Edition is a lot more capital for MS.
I care how it looks. In fact, “how it looks” takes on practical importance if you are an artist. Specifically, I really hope that Longhorn/Vista/Whatever has a good neutral scheme. Something less garish than the XP default (it’s tough to gauge color in, say, Photoshop when all your windows are trimmed with eye-searing electric blue), and more upbeat than the lifeless, battleship gray XP theme that they laughingly call “silver.” Hint to MS: look at any of Apple’s aqua schemes for pointers on how to make a bright-but-neutral theme.
So that’s why I flip the color schemes to Green or Silver in XP…
I care how it looks. In fact, “how it looks” takes on practical importance if you are an artist. Specifically, I really hope that Longhorn/Vista/Whatever has a good neutral scheme. Something less garish than the XP default (it’s tough to gauge color in, say, Photoshop when all your windows are trimmed with eye-searing electric blue), and more upbeat than the lifeless, battleship gray XP theme that they laughingly call “silver.” Hint to MS: look at any of Apple’s aqua schemes for pointers on how to make a bright-but-neutral theme.[/quote]
I’d kill for someone to make a decent dark them, personally. I’ve never understood why the default for reading on computers (a transmissive medium) is the same as paper (a reflective one). I find the whole white background/black text thing on computers incredibly hard on my eyes.
But I don’t have the time to make my own theme, and I swear not a single person that makes dark themes otherwise seems to realize that in addition to the background being dark, you still need actual contrast to read lots of text. The more contrast, the easier it is to read smaller text (within reason, bright yellow on black is a bit jarring).
If it’s really an issue, I suggest www.windowblinds.com; although I think there may be some interaction issues with photoshop (primarily you can’t have it skin subwindows of PS, though that may be a thing of the past).
Doesn’t anyone else hack their theme.dll so they can use custom themes? I will post the instructions on how to hack the theme.dll later if someone doesn’t beat me to it. Don’t quite have the time at the moment.
– Xaroc
This gives you the essentials:
http://weblogs.asp.net/cumpsd/archive/2004/09/01/223996.aspx
I don’t endorse the theme he mentions just the method for hacking the uxtheme.dll.
You can find numerous windows themes at deviantart among other places.
– Xaroc
Doesn’t anyone else hack their theme.dll so they can use custom themes? I will post the instructions on how to hack the theme.dll later if someone doesn’t beat me to it. Don’t quite have the time at the moment.
– Xaroc[/quote]
Every single XP install I do. Right after SP2 and hotfixes.
Alright, I hacked my uxtheme.dll, now I need pointers to some nifty themes that work well with this.
I’m currently trying out the Watercolor Lite theme that’s mentioned in the instructions linked above, and it’s nice enough, but variety is the spice of life. I could use some more quality Qt3 generated suggestions because Deviantart.com is just plain overwhelming.
Thanks!
/Eph
Click browse in the upper left corner, then choose category Skins & Themes and subcategory Visual Themes under the Windows heading in the dropdown. Then hit apply browse settings.
This is the style I am running now:
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/20124825/
If you use the middle click open in new tab functionality of firefox you can easily check out multiple themes in fairly short order. You rule out several of the styles just from looking at the thumbnails or descriptions. I know I don’t need 25 varieties of a Vista mockup.
I used to go to:
the only problem is now they want you to use a shareware program called stylexp to apply the styles which sucks.
– Xaroc
I really like that theme, Xaroc. Thanks for the pointer, the minimalist style suits me very well.
Do you happen to use a “dock” type utility along with the theme (as the author does)? If so, which one? I’ve played with the freeware version of ObjectDock and I’ve just downloaded MobyDock. I’m not sure which, if any, I should use. I like to keep things lightweight and stable, if that’s any help. Features are not high on my list of dock priorities.
Thanks again,
/Eph
DeviantArt is the best place to find custom themes, I’ve found. They have a lot of stylish but minimalistic themes. I generally use my own theme, though, which is sort of an unholy union of the Aqua and the Windows Luna theme…
If anyone wants to try it, they are welcome to download it here. It still has a few glitches; perhaps one day I’ll get around to fixing them.