Do you prefer Aqua or Platinum?
 

NOTE: You do not have to post to this thread to vote. If you visit the thread, please cast your vote.

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I know it's not entirely either/or with themes and other 3rd party solutions.

BUT . . . if you had to work with one or the other, which would you prefer?

Truthfully it's not that big a deal to me. I'm far more interested in what I can do with my system than what color and position the widgets have. After picking up the first couple of GUI's learning a new one just isn't that difficult.

Unless it's Luna, of course! :p Man they went out of their way to make that confusing.

When I first started OSX, I was thinking of Aqua as clunky, over-eyecandied GUI. After half a year of non-stop working in OSX, Aqua doesn't seems so bad anymore, and frankly I cannot imagine Platinum on OSX.

A few things in Aqua still irritate me, like useless semi-transparent menus. ;)

-slava@unsanity

I actually don't have a preference. Since OS 9 and OS X work differently, it's useful to have a reference to where you are. I remember from my service bureau days, trying to remember exactly which operating system I was using (System 6, Windows 386:D , the one Ventura Publisher ran under [can't remember just now], DOS, CP/M, etc.

I was younger then and forgot faster.

Hey, slava, you folks over at Unsanity have done some real bang-up work with the haxies, and I greatly admire your price points.

Thanks! :)

Either one or the other is nice, but they're BOTH horrible when mixed! I can't wait for the day I remove Classic from my system for good!

Changed theme
 

I just changed my Aqua theme to the Smooth Stripes theme from xthemination.maccustomise.com/ . Basically it just eliminates the stripes in the Finder. It looks great with the rest of the Aqua scheme. It is a very nice theme. I switched using Duality3, which you can find on www.versiontracker.com . Great software, makes changing themes a snap. Anyway, give Aqua a little change to see if you like anything different or if you like it the way it is (Nothing wrong with that it, Aqua is very nice).

Aqua or Platinum? Neither, I've been using...
 

Iridium Quicksilver since it came out. But before switching I did a little non-scientific test. I left it set to Aqua and scrolled a folder with hundreds of items in it, then switched to the built-in Graphite and scrolled the same folder...big difference. I did the same thing with a browser window and noticed a significant diffference there, too. Then switched themes and didn't look back. :D

Did you close the window?
 

Hey level9, I just wanted to know if you opened the window in Aqua, scrolled through the files, left the window open, changed the theme to Graphite, and then scrolled the window again?

The only reason I ask is that I have noticed that the first scroll through of a window with tons of files is often jerky, but if it has been scrolled through once, all subsequent scroll throughs are amazingly fast if the window had not been closed. I am wondering if that explains the effect you saw or if Graphite/Iridium is that much faster?

Either way, glad you found a theme you like.

Platinum hands down. I like the OS to be secondary (visually) to my graphic work. Aqua is like the Bozo show:) . No can do.

Re: Did you close the window?
 

Thundarr: I actually did it several times, started with Aqua, scrolled, switched to Graphite and scrolled...then back and forth several times with each. Then switched to Iridium, but never tried to see how much faster or slower it might be, I just wanted rid of the lines (among other things). :)

I've been using Iridium Quicksilver for several months and I think it is the most 'usable' look for OS X. Nice on the eyes and easy to work with. Get's funky, though, when I use a carbon app that has been made to 'look' like aqua. It's like mixin' metaphors...

Re: Changed theme
 

Thundarr and others, I'm finally going to try a few themes, but want to back up my Aqua files first. I've seen it posted before, but if anyone knows where they might be, I'd appreciate a reference.

Thanks!

Phil; the perl script that come with Sosumi does a bangup job of backing up the files it replaces (which is a lot of them). And you can just run the script as a backup of Aqua without actually installing Sosumi.

I also recall he included an installation FAQ that gave the file and path names that are replaced. Worth reading just for that.

I see that johnq swears by Duality as a Theme-switching tool. I haven't changed anything in a while (mildly customized Sosumi) so I haven't tried this for myself.

Aqua is so much more fun for me than Platinum. I remember the pre-OS 8 days. I'd use Win95 on occasion and think: man, why doesn't the Mac have this nifty gray interface? But gray is gray. After a while it got boring. I love Aqua--it's such a breath of fresh air and I've had absolutely zero loss of productivity from Platinum to Aqua using apps that are available on both.

I haven't had this much fun with an OS since the switch from System 6.08 to System 7. And that was a good time.

Andy

Duality 3
 

Hey Craig, I have also been using Duality 3 to change themes, just to try different ones out. It works great. I liked the SilverFox and SmoothStripes themes the best (stayed with SmoothStripes).

Hi Phil. Most of the themes only replace the Extras.rsrc and the Info.plist in Finder.app. Some actually replace others, like the HIToolbox.rsrc and the BootPanel.pdf and the loginwindow.app. I shy away from those because I have customized my default icons, bootpanel and login window. Duality 3 also comes with an Aqua restore function which works well with the .theme themes. It also provides a program to download new themes. have fun trying things out.:)

Re: Re: Changed theme
 

I know some of those themes install as a package. And when they do they usually include an "Aqua Restore" which, in theory, can return your stuff to pristine Aqua no matter how bad you muck it up. I've had no fatal problems using themes yet (knock on silicon). Just switched to Smooth Stripes, and while I don't really care for the Aqua gel buttons or scroll bars, the switch is almost worth it due to the opaque menus (which are faster). I'd love to be able to open Sosumi and make the menus opaque and maybe change the menubar and title bars to the Smooth Stripes style. I could easily create a Frankenstein's monster but I do hope the new theme editor which is coming will let the technically-challenged people like me tinker.

Duality indeed!
 

Well, I finally got my courage up and installed Duality 3.0.1. Went to Xthemation and downloaded a few themes. Decided to try something called SimpleX, which looked good on the web site, but which I found SimpleX-traordinarily Ugly. Decided to switch to Sosumi: spinning wheel for 5 min, system and processor maxed out, computer heating up. Force/quit Duality. But what kind of mess have I created? Better try to get Aqua back before rebooting. Duality did this fine. Rebooted, and now I've got the SimpleX splash screen, SimpleX and Aqua icons on my Finder toolbar. But everything works!

This was the kind of thing I was afraid would happen!

I do have another computer running X in Pure Aqua. Where, precisely, is that Aqua theme file? Can I just replace what I have on my iBook with the file/package on my file/package from my iMac?

Whew! Curiosity killed the cat . . . and Duality screwed up my themes. :(

Phil

Brad: The app to use to make those customizations is called Sprocket. It's in pre-release 5 now, and you use it to edit the pxm# resources that are the major component of Extras.rsrc.

The guy who developed this hangs out at MacNN, and I always have to go there and hunt for the download link.

I could throw a copy on my iDisk if people are interested.

Re: Duality indeed!
 

Phil, if you just need the original Aqua resource files, I can send them to you as a .sit file and you can extract what you need. Let me know if you need the paths to where these things need to go.

Learned about all this from being burned myself! :(