The Linux Box
The choice of a GNU generation
To many WINE errors? Try Bordeaux.
Keep up to date with our RSS feed. You could advertise tour FOSS project here for FREE by using the Contact Form.
The News
A Dozen GNOME Themes
Date: 25 Apr 2010 / Author: SeanParsons / Views: 5642 / Comments: 8
Mark Shuttleworth back in October of 2006 said:
"If we want the world to embrace free software, we have to make it
beautiful. I’m not talking about inner beauty, not elegance, not ideological purity… pure, unadulterated, raw, visceral, lustful, shallow,
skin deep beauty."
Sometimes though beauty is very subjective. Steve jobs, talking about OS X,
said:
"We made the buttons on the screen look so good you’ll want to lick
them."
Personally, unless I'm looking at a picture of a thicky juicy steak along with a tall pint of Guiness, I
will probably never have a desire to lick my screen. But one thing is sure, with improved graphics drivers, projects like compiz fusion, and an
increasing number of artists the Linux desktop is ready to make the transformation from an ugly duckling to a beautiful swan.
Now there are
plenty of sites that have posted their top 10, top 16, top 25, even their top 50 themes for GNOME, but some how their lists always include the same
designs over and over. The goal here is to look at some newer and/or forgotten themes, some interesting combinations fom preexisting themes, and some
inclusions of original work to provide a reason to look at these themes.
AIRLINES
This first theme comes from the Bisigi Project. The Bisigi Project aims to create complete and coherent themes. They are designed
to be light (using gtk-engines like murrine), simple and keep the GNOME philosophy. The screenshot above does not do justice for how beautiful this
theme is. Also, one of the things that I really like is its animated wallpaper. The home page for this particular theme can be found here:
http://www.bisigi-project.org/?p=411&lang=en.
AURORA LEOPARD BSM WITH SP
MODS
Yeah, the title sucks but I think the theme itself is frickin awesome. Haven Lee (a.k.a, jcase008) released a dark OS X style theme, but it was still a little rough
looking so I changed the nbase_color from #b3b3b3 to #ffffff so that OOo applications would display correctly. I made new buttons for the metacity
theme because there were jagged edges around all the buttons. The end effect does not look as mac-esque, but the images gained a much smoother
appearance, and I was not really worried specifically about looking like OS X.
You can download my changes here:
AuroraLeopardBSMDarkwithSPmods.tar.gz
Billy Butler
put together the Mashup icon theme used in the screenshot. I can no longer find his mashups on GNOME Look so here is Mashup-2 as Billy Butler had
assembled it:
Mashup-2.tar.gz
Also the very cool wallpaper shown in
the above screenshot was drawn by Benny04 and can be found here:
http://benny04.deviantart.com/art/Experimental-A-Wallpaper-XIII-98929697
CUSTOM
ELEMENT
Custom Element uses the MurrinaNeoGraphite gtk theme located in many distributions' repositories in
murrine-themes, but the gtk theme can be downloaded here:
MurrinaNeoGraphite.tar.gz
The icon theme and the metacity theme can
both be downloaded from the Elementary Project at:
http://www.elementary-project.com/downloads.html
Lasly, the wallpaper comes frome
a GNOME Look poster known as xactive. You can find his Liquid wallpapers here:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Liquid?content=52306
CUSTOM
MOOMEX ULTIMATUM
The gtk and meticity themes for this come from the Moomex Ultimatum which can be found
here:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Moomex+Ultimatum?content=72600
The
icon set for this theme also comes from an icon mashup put together by Billy Butler. You can download this mashup here:
Mashup-1.tar.gz
And the cool monochromatic wallpaper made by Marko001 can
be found here:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/dream+tree?content=111319
EQUIBEE
EquiBee is primarily based on the Equinox Glass gtk and metacity theme which can be found here:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/GTK+Equinox+Engine?content=123488
The
icon set is yet another icon mashup put together by Billy Butler. You can download this mashup here:
Mashup-4.tar.gz
The BeeBot wallpaper can be found at
pcdesignzone.com:
http://psdesignzone.com/top-15-wallpapers-for-your-desktop
GENTLE
DESKTOP
The Gentle Desktop came from an idea proposed by Bert Bruggeman with a mockup he posted here:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Gentle+Gnome+mockup?content=31128
Well
everyone attempted to make their own implementation of his theme. At the time I was using XFCE and made a version for XFWM which can be found
here:
http://thelinuxbox.org/news.php?2010/01/19/gentle-xfce.html
Others
worked on GNOME versions. I became very partial to my own version and I think the GNOME version most like my own is Gentle-LT found here:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Gentle-LT?content=58356
The
icons used come form saki's NuoveXT icon pack found here:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/nuoveXT+2?content=56625
I
can no longer find the wallpapers I like with this theme on deviantART. For now you can download 2 of Javier Ocasio's wallpapers from me:
Autumn_1920_left.jpg
Autumn_1920_right.jpg
KIBERTRON
The gtk theme is called Murrina Fancy Candy, but it does not appear to be the same theme that is on GNOME Look. I found the theme in one
of my repositories, but if you would like to enjoy it no matter what distro you're running then download it here:
MurrinaFancyCandy.tar.gz
The metacity theme is the very popular
Alphacube Metacity Color theme from Ciccio Bueo. Grab it here:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Alphacube+Metacity+Theme?content=29791
Christopher
Bratusek refit the Oxygen icon theme for GNOME users. The net result can be found here:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Oxygen+Refit+2?content=79756
The
wallpaper is an original creation and can't be found elsewhere. It is based on the very cool Kibertron
Project. The Kibertron team gave me permission to work on this wallpaper about three and a half years ago, but I just never released it till now!
Download and enjoy:
kibertron.png
OXYGEN
The gtk theme Oxygen-Molecule helps to provide a unified look between GNOME and KDE apps, plus it just plain look cool. You can find out
more about this theme and download it at:
http://kde-look.org/content/show.php/Oxygen-Molecule+KDE+&+GTK++unified+theme?content=103741
The
metacity theme can be found at:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Oxygen+KDE+4.4.1-1.0?content=122286
Once
again, this makes use of Christopher Bratusek's refit the Oxygen icon theme for GNOME users. The net result can be found here:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Oxygen+Refit+2?content=79756
The
wallpaper is going to excite some and disappoint many others. The wallpaper, called Arctica, comes from digital blasphemy which has many of the
coolest wallpapers ever. There are some very high quality wallpapers available for free, but this wallpaper requires you to pay for a membership to
obtain it (this is how Ryan Bliss makes a living). Checkout this wallpaper here:
http://digitalblasphemy.com/preview.shtml?i=arctic
P9L
Several
years a go I toyed with the idea of making Yet Another Linux Distribution (YALD). This was shortly after Ubuntu had come on the seen and for the first
time ever I was impressed with GNOME. The Ubuntu theme, at the time, was ugly and it required effort to get all the wanted codecs installed. Plus, I
had some differences in opinions as to which applications should be installed by default back, and I had a different plan has to how documentation
should be handled. I decided it would be fun to make my own hobby distro that maintains binary compatibility with Ubuntu. Some parts were fun as I
rolled out my first alpha releases, but then came some nasty letters written in legaleese. I was shocked as I hadn't even announced my project to
anyone yet. Well, since my goal was only to have fun I decided I would have more fun finding other ways to fill my time than responding to these
letters. One of the things that came out of it though is the p9l theme.
The gtk theme is an -ish derivative:
ish-p9l.tar.gz
The metacity them is Filippo David's Plastik. I can no longer
find this on the web, so until I find it I'll host it:
Plastik.tar.gz
Remeber that I was just converting from KDE, so I decided
to use a GNOME version of Everaldo's Crystal Clear icons:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=26331
Also, if you want an
XMMS theme to go along with this, here is a skin I made:
p9l-amp_v1.0.tar.gz
The wallpaper used in the screenshot was something
I came across when doing a random Google image search. It can be found here:
http://davaocitypolice.com/dcpoadmin/rotateimages/3d-paradise-island-wallpaper.jpg
PEPPER
The gtk theme is something I put together based on Aurora and Dust. It requires you to use the Aurora engine:
Aurora-Pepper.tar.gz
The metacity theme is Dust, which some distro come
with preinstalled, but if you need to install it, you can find it here:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Ubuntu+Dust?content=88790
The
icon set for this theme is the same icon mashup used for the Custom Moomex Ultimatum displayed above. You can download this mashup here:
Mashup-1.tar.gz
The wallpaper was created by Stan Lau (a.k.a., Artgerm)
made this based on his character Pepper:
http://artgerm.deviantart.com/art/Pepper-Orient-Wallpaper-34272916
RETROBUNTU
Ubuntu's orange and brown themes are barely even gone and I miss them already. Actually orange and brown themes can look nice but
somehow Canonical consistantly executed on them poorly. Here is a bright orange theme using the same orange as Ubuntu's logo. It's based on
Clearlooks Classic for its metacity and gtk themes which comes preinstalled in GNOME.
You can download the Human O2 icon set here:
http://schollidesign.deviantart.com/art/Human-O2-Iconset-105344123
The
groovy Amanecer wallpaper was made by EAMejia. You can download that here
http://eamejia.deviantart.com/art/Amanecer-95455972
Then to get your gtk color
scheme to be correct you can use this file:
Retrobuntu.tar.gz
SHIKI SEAN
This theme makes use of the Shiki Wise theme from Shiki colors. Some distros come with Shiki Colors either
preinstalled or in their repositories, but if not you can grab them here:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Shiki-Colors?content=86717
Billy
Butler put together the Mashup icon theme used in the screenshot. I can no longer find his mashups on GNOME Look so here is Mashup-2 as Billy Butler
had assembled it:
Mashup-2.tar.gz
I'm not sure where this wallpaper
originated, but I found it here:
http://public.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pnlulfAVlniH6HjdKTeeMalc4rZ9Y56EXPR7wWgXogiX8uiegvTSxI690oSyRuga1DGpn4C7rtBloHaV1CrG_sA/wmb1920.jpg
That
rounds out a dozen themes, so what are some of your favorites that you think others would enjoy? Please leave a comment below.
RSS feed for comments on A Dozen GNOME Themes
Comments: 8
1.
| 25 Apr 2010 - 23:38
Hey guys nice themes! Check out this awesome one! you missed it in the list!:
http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php?content=119776
2. SeanParsons | 26 Apr 2010 - 02:15
@Tre Jay,
iRaveH2O is an amazing icon set. Thanks for sharing it.
3. Ignacio Garcia | 26 Apr 2010 - 10:25
All these themes look better than Lucid's Radiance and Ambiance for sure. I can't believe Lucid's going to look so ugly.
4. !ncognito | 26 Apr 2010 - 12:05
Really good themes. Thanks a lot.. :)
5.
| 26 Apr 2010 - 12:38
Hi, great job showing some variety of themes. I really enjoy changing themes. My favorites are the Shiki Dust and the new Lucid Ambiance/Radiance themes. Below are screenshots on what I did with each.
Shiki Dust-
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_diGIKh4lTFs/S3mUCtEDmUI/AAAAAAAABSA/gn9qPdHum8A/s1600-h/Feb-wood-desktop.png
Lucid Radiance-
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mHpGUNwLSfs/S9EZp90k4rI/AAAAAAAABdI/Zj8pJPOC998/s1600/Radiance+FF.png
The above was achieved using YOUR article on how to apply these new themes to your older Ubuntu desktop. So a big thanks to you guys.
Keep up the great work and thanks.
Jim
6. SeanParsons | 27 Apr 2010 - 05:27
@Jim
Thanks for sharing the screenshots, and the positive feedback. I think the 'wood' themed screenshot is pretty cool.
1.
| 1 Sep 2010 - 21:09
bratiseertofs
<a href=http://wsuaa.org>propecia and rogaine</a>
equapterubabe
<a href=http://sefsa.org>Cheapest z-pak without a prescription</a>
thugsMoutty
1.
| 5 Sep 2010 - 11:45
http://profiles.tigweb.org/lopaserap <a href="http://profiles.tigweb.org/lopaserap">Tramadol</a> and <a href=http://profiles.tigweb.org/lopaserap > cash for tramadol mengimplementasikan </a>
http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/tramadol4online/blog/ <a href="http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/tramadol4online/blog/">Tramadol</a> and <a href=http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/tramadol4online/blog/ > tramadol in US availabilitynn </a>
http://www.authorsden.com/buy2soma4order <a href="http://www.authorsden.com/buy2soma4order">soma</a> and <a href=http://www.authorsden.com/buy2soma4order > soma in US camarillorandolph </a>
http://mipagina.univision.com/tramadolu123 <a href="http://mipagina.univision.com/tramadolu123">tramadol</a> and <a href=http://mipagina.univision.com/tramadolu123 > tramadol dosage trowbridge </a>
http://mipagina.univision.com/xanaxe5ty6 <a href="http://mipagina.univision.com/xanaxe5ty6">xanax</a> and <a href=http://mipagina.univision.com/xanaxe5ty6 > discount xanax grammatical </a>
http://profiles.tigweb.org/tmertylon <a href="http://profiles.tigweb.org/tmertylon">Tramadol</a> and <a href=http://profiles.tigweb.org/tmertylon > buying tramadol Defines </a>
http://mipagina.univision.com/phenterminee3r4 <a href="http://mipagina.univision.com/phenterminee3r4">phentermine<
/a> and <a href=http://mipagina.univision.com/phenterminee3r4 > phentermine no rx needed excited </a>
http://www.paparoach.com/users/C0fGGE7L <a href="http://www.paparoach.com/users/C0fGGE7L">Xanax</a> and <a href=http://www.paparoach.com/users/C0fGGE7L > cheap overnight xanax PROUD </a>
http://www.paparoach.com/users/4UpXf7y6 <a href="http://www.paparoach.com/users/4UpXf7y6">Phentermine</a> and <a href=http://www.paparoach.com/users/4UpXf7y6 > order phentermine SpamdexingSpamdexing </a>
http://www.authorsden.com/tramadolpills <a href="http://www.authorsden.com/tramadolpills">Tramadol</a> and <a href=http://www.authorsden.com/tramadolpills > no prescription tramadol manajemen </a>
http://www.paparoach.com/users/xKEfKdd6 <a href="http://www.paparoach.com/users/xKEfKdd6">Viagra</a> and <a href=http://www.paparoach.com/users/xKEfKdd6 > discount generic viagra First </a>
http://mipagina.univision.com/ambien4red3 <a href="http://mipagina.univision.com/ambien4red3">ambien</a> and <a href=http://mipagina.univision.com/ambien4red3 > ambien cheap bartonmaxwell </a>
http://mipagina.univision.com/somaw123 <a href="http://mipagina.univision.com/somaw123">soma</a> and <a href=http://mipagina.univision.com/somaw123 > soma purchase WebCreated </a>
http://www.paparoach.com/users/6DB4Xj9s <a href="http://www.paparoach.com/users/6DB4Xj9s">Soma</a> and <a href=http://www.paparoach.com/users/6DB4Xj9s > soma side effects flock </a>
http://www.paparoach.com/users/vKbHDL6w <a href="http://www.paparoach.com/users/vKbHDL6w">tramadol</a> and <a href=http://www.paparoach.com/users/vKbHDL6w > cod tramadol tasks </a>
http://www.authorsden.com/xanax2online <a href="http://www.authorsden.com/xanax2online">xanax</a> and <a href=http://www.authorsden.com/xanax2online > free shipping xanax starts </a>
http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/soma4online/blog/ <a href="http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/soma4online/blog/">Soma</a> and <a href=http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/soma4online/blog/ > soma cheap fedex Proses </a>