Ubuntu 8.10 hits beta; the look lets the fans down again
Ubuntu 8.10 intrepid Ibex beta hit the market today but its appearance ONCE AGAIN came as a great disappointment. Since this is a beta version, we can’t expect any change in the features now. All the works, which will be done until the final version hits the market on 30th October, will be only to fix the bugs. So, just keep your finger corssed until Jaunty Jackalope is released. If you are disappointed with the current appearance of your favorite Linux distro, here are some ways to give it a new fancy life again.
Everything is right about Ubuntu expect its look. Changing its appearance is one of the highly requested features by many fans around the world. Fans were expecting a change with Hardy Heron, but it didn’t happen. They had a lot of expectations with Intrepid Ibex but it came with nothing more than small color changes and this non-sense wallpaper:
The ugliest wallpaper ever
If you hate Ubunut’s default appearance, here are some ways to make it look best of the all OSes
- Install Emerald Theme manager and download emerald themes from gnome-look.org. I’m using Scaled_Black_Mod
- Get rid of the bottom panel and replace it with some beautiful and productive dock. Here is a nice tutorial on how to do this.
- Get mails, weather, and system info right on your desktop with conky. After this ‘beauty’ comes as a bonus for you. Read my previous post on how to do this. I’ve included all the required files and fonts so it shoudn’t take you more than 10minutes.
- Download Ubuntu wallpapers to show your Ubuntu love. If you love nature and prefer some natural backgrounds instead, you can get them from devian art. Other place to look for the beautiful wallpapers are: InterfaceLIFT, and StudioTwentyEight
- If you want to get rid of the top menu, you can replace it with a nice looking cirular application menu.
After a couple of hours your ugly desktop should more beautiful then mine:
Desktop Screenshot with conky, AWN, Scaled Black mod theme, and Gnome-Do
web design Says:
When is this “Prettier than OSX” supposed to happen?
[Reply]
Posted on October 3rd, 2008 at 3:44 am
Trent Says:
At some point the developers have to sit back and think, no one is going to use something that looks like crap. Yes I love using it because I think its a wonderful operating system, but the average Joe isn’t going to be interested.
Its like buying a car, sure I want a car that runs good, but I’m not going to buy the ugliest car(not that you have to pay for Ubuntu). Furthermore there have been some beautiful examples drawn up and submitted to ubuntu. Any of them would be 10 -1 better than what we have. Hopefully they’re just teasing and have something big in store for the final release!
[Reply]
Posted on October 3rd, 2008 at 5:36 am
Mike Says:
When they update its appearance, do you think you will like every aspect of it? Or will you customize it to suit your tastes better?
It seems like you are already doing that, so rather than additional features and other UI enhancements, you are asking them to spend time on changes to the appearance that you probably won’t completely agree with anyways.
[Reply]
Posted on November 3rd, 2008 at 6:43 am
Rez(A) Says:
the point isn’t the customising … the point is that when something doesn’t look good, normal people won’t have desire to try it … u put a scrn shot of this next to a vista … who cares … vista looks better … but you put the customized shot here next to vista … things will change … for many eye does the job of the brain … and until some base of beauty is brought in … its gonna be hard to get attention …
and no one is asking those who are already working one these features and enhancements … they have to use designers and people with artistic view to do the job …
[Reply]
Posted on November 10th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Rez(A) Says:
hi … in a shot I saw your menu was transparent how did you do that?
thank you … all these were great using em as we speak
[Reply]
Posted on November 16th, 2008 at 6:38 am