Ubuntu's New Look - No More Brown!

Finally it happened! Ubuntu now has a brand new look and feel. New Logo, GktTheme, Webdesign, Boot splash and so much more. The community logos (Ubuntu QA, Brainstorm, UbuntuForums, SpreadUbuntu and Xubuntu) have also received an update. The new color-scheme is a dark purple or brownish-purple color that resembles the color of the outer skin of a European eggplant - Aubergine! (As Alan Pope points out). Pure awesomeness! Check it out:

The new light GktTheme

The new boot screen. Notice the new font that has replace the Ubuntu Title font?

The new Ubuntu 10.04 CD cover

Source:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Brand
http://fridge.ubuntu.com/

No Human Theme In Ubuntu 10.04?

In an interview recorded on February 19 2010, Mark Shuttleworth revealed that a new light theme will replace the Human theme in Ubuntu 10.04. The Human theme has been the default theme in Ubuntu since the first release.

In the interview Mark says:

...we'll have some new styling which is going to be the starting point of another five year view. We've been Human for the last five years and now we're gonna be light oriented.

I'm sure Mark is referring to something like the Elementary theme, which has been a hot topic these last few months.
Some people think that interpreting "some new styling" being "the starting point of another five year view" as an entire new GTK / Metacity theme redesign might be a bit of a stretch. As 23meg from the Ubuntuforums.org points out, it can be interpreted as only the starting pieces of a new five-year outlook landing in Lucid as well.
During the Ask Mark session at Ubuntu OpenWeek, Mark was asked about the artwork for Lucid. Back then he replied:

New window decorations, some new icons for the panel indicators, some new styling on boot and login, no new gtk theme.

I must admit, I'm really in doubt about what to expect in Lucid. There are no artwork drops secduled for this release, but the User Interface Freeze is just around the corner, so we'll soon know what Lucid Lynx will look like.

Give Gnome A More Modern Look

click image to view in full size
When compared to KDE 4, OSX or Windows 7 the default Gnome desktop looks… let’s face it… old. Here are a few steps I took to make my desktop look more modern:

- Change the theme:
I’m using the Dust theme which is included in Ubuntu 9.04 (also available for earlier releases).
- Change the icon set:
I find the Oxygen icon set to be one of the best set’s out there, I really do love the upcoming Breathe icon set. Although Breathe is still work in progress you can already take it for a test drive.
- Change the wallpaper:
Of course I use the photo wallpapers from my Ubuntu Wallpaper Photo Pack, which recently was updated and now holds eighteen photographs (43 MB).
- Adjust panel properties:
Transparent panels look very modern and makes the panels more integrated with the desktop background. Under panel properties I also set the size to 34 pixels.
- Add custom system sounds:
The sounds I’m currently using are the Rhodes system sounds I created myself.

If you like to rock out with your dock, I would recommend that you try Gnome Do.

Epidermis Theme Manager Needs Your Help

If you're still searching for beatuful themes there's now a new tool that will make your life easier.
Epidermis Theme Manager is an open source GTK application for managing, automatically downloading and installing themes of various types, in order to transform the look of your Linux desktop, from the moment you turn it on until the moment you turn it off. Take a look at the screenshot.

More screenshots here...

An Epidermis skin handles the following themes, called pigments:

* Wallpapers
* Metacity window border themes
* GTK widget themes
* Icon sets
* GNOME splash images
* Mouse cursor themes
* Grub bootsplash screen
* Usplash bootsplash screen
* GDM login screen

So, how can you help?
One of the easiest ways to contribute to Epidermis' development is by make pigments (themes) for Epidermis. Just grab your favorite themes and turn them into epidermis-compatible pigments using the Epidermis Creator. Then send them in. Pigments that fit together to make a skin are particularly interesting.

Translate it to your favorite language:
Translating is easy, just create a Launchpad account and head over to translations.launchpad.net/epidermis, translation is open to anyone so you can start right away!

Find bugs and report them:
Just like most free software projects, Epidermis has a bug tracker so that problems can be identified quickly and properly addressed.

Design a better GUI:
If you think you can make the graphical user interface more intuitive and know how to improve a program's usability, Epidermis could use your suggestions. Here are some of the ideas for a GUI, send yours in!

Contribute code:
Put your hacker's hat on and start coding. If you know Python and PyGTK, you're perfect for the job. Just grab the Epidermis bzr branch off launchpad and upload it as your own personnel branch, no commit permissions required. Once your branch is ready, request a merge.

Visit the site: http://epidermis.tuxfamily.org/

Beautiful themes for Ubuntu

If you've been searching for beatuful themes for your Ubuntu desktop, you might want to visit http://francois.vogelweith.com/. This site provides easy installation and good previews of many themes. Unfortunately, the site isn't in English, but Google is your friend and will translate it for you. Click the link below to visit the translated version of the site.

Visit the site in English...

UPDATE: Vadi has translated the instructions here...

Dust Theme 0.3.0

There have been (and still is) much talk about the Ubuntu theme. The dark Dust theme is loved by many users. Dust is a concept for a new, refreshing look for Ubuntu. The idea was to take the defining aesthetic elements of Ubuntu and remix it into something clean, modern, functional, and unique.

New stuff:
* Dropped Aurora support, sorry. I'll get it back when I get some time.
* Cleaned up a lot of code.
* Now uses the clearlooks engine, and uses the murrine engine (tested with rev136) ONLY in the checkboxes and menuitems. I'd like to stay away from murrine until it gets stable.

The theme is currently being worked on by Rico Sta. Cruz and Kido Mariano, but sadly Rico Sta. made this announcement on the ubuntu-artwork mailinglist today:

After this release I think I'm going to stop working on the theme for a while.

Rico Sta. is one of the most talented artists in the Linux community. He also provided the Ibex for the wallpaper used in Ubuntu 8.10 - Intrepid Ibex

The 0.2 series is still available for download. Grab the 0.3.0 release here...

Ubuntu Wanted Site

The Ubuntu Wanted site is still in working progress and recently my contribution was added to the branch. You are able to see it at the test-site: http://ubuntu-wanted-devel.ideatorrent.org/

Sense Hofstede also uploaded a mindmap listing the progress of Ubunut Wanted. If you see something on the mindmap where you'd like to help out, please contact Sense Hofstede.



Find more news on Qense’s blog
or visit the wiki to learn https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Website/Wanted

The road to GNOME 3.0 (first draft)

This is the first draft of the road to GNOME 3.0 artwork and UI-wise. v0.0.1

Vision
GNOME 3.0 should have visual refresh. Such a major release without any or little changes could dissapoint users. No radical UI concept change, but incremental refinements around the desktop of things that have proved to work and dropping or improving/dropping things that don't, making the GNOME desktop look prettier and make it more usable. Overall it should look new but still be recognized as the GNOME desktop, but improved.
GNOME 3.0 should also be easier to design for. GNOME is highly themeable, but methods used aren't always as easy and documentation is poor. Right now designers can only adjust certain options of an existing widget theme, or depend on GTK+ hackers to make their theme work.

Events and Deadlines


Components
These are components of GNOME that the Art Team will be working on. Note that there are no seperate "art packages". The team will be working closely together with all kinds of different projects, especially on the UI work.

- Login screen
- Splash sceen
- Wallpapers
- UI design
- Widget themes
- Icons
- Fonts
- Animations
- Website

Ideas and Points of Discussion
Login screen
New GDM version? Seamless transition from the login screen to the desktop: prevent color flickering. Fading in of the wallpaper and panels. Making the login process a smooth transition will make it look shorter. New theme.

Splash screen (more like getting rid of it)
The splash screen is totally useless, the icons are often misaligned and it's causes two more "flashes" in the login process. A lot of distributions are already turning it off by default.

Wallpapers
GNOME 3.0 should have some new wallpapers. A contest could be held, it turned out very well for GNOME 2.24. Does anyone really use patterns? We haven't added any new ones in the latest 2.24 wallpaper update.

UI design (Note: think of "layout" instead of "looks")
Window list applet update, include an optional "dock mode" with basically bigger icons? Notification area applet update, better spacing. [1] Clock update applet, The date can be less eyecatching, and the time more. [2]

Widget themes
GTK engine(s) that let's the designers have control, instead of tweaking certain options. Make spacing themeable? New theme.

Icons
Follow the naming specification, ignore everything else. [3] Applications should have a hires icon. More use of hires icons where they are appropriate. Tango Next Generation (Mango) icon theme as the default theme now that the licensing is going to be LGPL? [4] Yellow colored Foxtrot folders? [5]

Fonts
Bitsream and Dejavu are quite spacious, a condensed type kan show more text in the same space without losing readability. Nicer smoother fonts that look great bold as well, a good bold font is important for dialogs etc. and where you want attention on the text Use color tints in UI (have a secondary font color?)

Animations
Subtle smooth effects that increase usability and are pleasing to look at. (think Banshee [6])

Website
The current gnome.org website looks like it's from the 90's. It may give people a wrong impression about how modern the GNOME platform really is.The GNOME 3.0 break is a great opportunity to create a new (think Web 2.0) website.

References
[1] http://www.bomahy.nl/hylke/blog/ugly-notification-area-in-gnome/
[2] http://www.bomahy.nl/hylke/blog/pretty-gnome-clock/
[3] http://standards.freedesktop.org/icon-naming-spec/icon-naming-spec-latest.html
[4] http://jimmac.musichall.cz/i.php?i=Tango-NG
[5] http://www.andreasn.se/blog/?p=21
[6] http://banshee-project.org/

http://www.bomahy.nl/hylke/wip/gnome-art-roadmap-draft.pdf

Dark theme porposed the Ibex

So the Ubuntu 8.10 (Ibex) alpha is out and it's shiped with a dark theme default.



If you want to try the new theme on Hardy, just add this to your sources.list and upgrade your packages.

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/kwwii/ubuntu hardy main