Hi! Sorry, this is a tad rambly, but I feel like pushing some thoughts...
I have spent a bit of time tinkering after discovering that I never use Metacity's window buttons. Pulled them out by editing metacity's stuff in gconf... I even tried removing the window titles by editing the theme, but it turns out I can't live without those. Changed to a different Metacity theme (Plano), although Human's theme was doing well with shrinking down the title bar. I think the results were quite striking. My thought was that programs usually have their own Close buttons and don't need the WM one. I hate redundancy, so naturally had to do it. (I also never use Minimize, instead bouncing windows to new workspaces when I don't need them for the task at hand. Need a button for that...) The impact this fiddling has is kind of interesting: It makes me forget about windows and just see a program's own interface. Although people are pretty stuck in the crazy ways of window close buttons, I really think "simple" like this is how window decorations should be. By all means, they can add titles to my windows and work to keep them easy to tell apart, but far too many themes are instead striving to be noticed. Nobody cares about the window; it says nothing and is really just a superficial adjustment. The important part is the interface inside the window. Being noticable is the job of the GTK theme and only the GTK theme. Something else that interested me was the effect of not having a border. Even with the same Human-Clearlooks GTK theme, having a different Metacity theme really made a difference. It kind of opened up my desktop, where the current Metacity theme seems to put everything into enclosed tanks, this one gives programs all the space available. I guess I could just go out and say "it looks Macish", although the same effect is possible with a theme that doesn't have the trademark silver gradient at the top. Besides which, the only thing Macish here is that it looks plain amazing. Back in time even just a little, this type of theme was impossible because the way to get drop shadows was Compiz, but Metacity's simple compositor is finally bringing drop shadows to the masses! With drop shadows defining windows, we don't need borders except as little resizing handles... Simple screenshot to show off: http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/3945/yayfu2.png Another notable thing there, in my opinion, is what that still does for the GTK theme, even in its simplicity. This one is built to blend with the GTK theme, thus creating flow like we have with the rest of Clearlooks. However, this is finally a part of a window we can completely expect to be there, which is not the same for toolbars and menubars. With Human-Clearlooks, I can see trouble is being had in creating a flowing gradient because of that lack of predictability, but the effect can be achieved gracefully if the gradient happens with the Metacity theme. In essence, Plano is built to simply close the rough edges around GTK's presence, rather than to impose its own style on the windows. Anyhow, I guess my point is that Metacity themes are very powerful things, and it would probably be worth pondering a fresh one for Intrepid Ibex. Obviously wouldn't fit Hardy, since the aim is not for a full theme re-imagining there and because Metacity's compositor is experimental at this point in time. However, I think Metacity themes could do with as much attention as GTK ones! Bye, -Dylan
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