New Themes.org Almost Ready; Needs A Little Help

Daelin writes: "Themes.org is almost ready to re-open! They need people to write submission guidelines and then maintain the item queue for item types that people want covered, however. This is a chance for some people to help out a hub which connects several different communities."

Comments

Themes.org

[sagacious_gnostic]

This really is a great site.

Over the last few months while they've been "static" I must admit that, on occasion, i've been annoyed at nothing seemingly happening.

Knowing (personally) some of the maintainers at irc.themes.org and that they're probably as annoyed as I was helped me look at things in a different perspective though.

These guys work hard and deserve every praise they get, and no critisism (critique is ok)... they don't get paid for this remember. I know at least one person responsible at irc.themes.org was considering resigning from his position because of lack of progress... just glad he didn't. I'm just glad that things _are_ happening. Kudos to the themes.org team.

Collaboration At Its Best

[N8F8]

Themes.Org has to be one of the best examples to hand out to Linux newbies of the platform's advantages at its best. So many people with varying skill levels contributing their time and efforts to let people pick from hundreds of desktop configurations and appearances.
Just think about it.

Each Windowing environment has programmers writing open spec API's to allow people to customize the desktop.

Then the people who write the software to create and install the Themes. Not to mention graphics editing software and sound editing software.

Gui, Graphics and sound icon designers working on theme components.

Individuals and teams putting the peieces together to create hundreds of themes with a consistant look and feel.

All the user has to do if he/she wants to completely change the look of their desktop or make the computer an extension of their own personality is go to Themes.Org and click the download button.

Awesome. Nothing comparable comes to mind.

Re:Themes.org

[hattig]

I really must get around to installing KDE 2.2 so I can run that theme. Maybe I will have to wait for 2.2.1 just to get the latest version.

And I need XFree86 4.1 for work because of the crappy ATI graphics chip that doesn't do anti-aliasing in 4.0.3...

Have to go into work today anyway, so if I get the time I will try and attack ports and try and get them both to compile and install.

Oh yeah, on topic anyway - I hope that the new themes.org can rate themes based upon speed, looks and functionality. Also, I might just want to have native (coded) themes shown, not the slower pixmap themes.

Urgh, I bet it will have an XP theme database as well... nasty stuff, that horrible plastic tonka-toy interface that XP defaults to...

Anyway, MacOSX was meant to be themeable - are there any themes for it apart from Aqua and Platinum?

I've got a theme

[Inthewire]

I've had the same theme for years...black background, white text.
Before that it was black background, orange text.
Long time ago it was green background, whitish green text.
And my first real theme was white background, blue lines, grey text.

one of the great examples of oss community

[erik_fredricks]

I've been frequenting the site for ages, and in fact, a theme I found there became my impetus for switching to WindowMaker and never looking back. The old site was a great resource, a novel but ridiculously useful idea, and for me, it became one heck of a time-sink and full-time hobby. Nothing this valuable exists for the commercial OS'es, and I wouldn't be surprised if it converted a bunch of folks to Linux/BSD.

Here's wishing everyone the best of luck. BTW, I like the new "peachy" color scheme:-)

Uhhh... what about Linux distros?

[Ghoser777]

I don't know about #1, but I got to disagree with you on #2.

Most of the work opensource developers will put in will directly influence whether or not the companies that produce linux distros will make a profit. If linux sucks and doesn't improve, then they don't make money. If it rocks and it's getting better, then these companies will make more money (because more people will buy their distro + tech support).

People volunteer for companies that are out to make profits all the time. If I volunteer, it's not because it's for a non-profit cause, but that it's for a good cause.

F-bacher

Re:Customization in the work place

[Ghoser777]

And it's even worse when you're trying to help them fix a problem with their computer.

"Okay, now go to the StartMenu and select Run"

"The what menu"

"You know, the menu in the bottom left that says 'Start'"

"I don't have one of those"

"why not?"

"It got in the way, so I deleted it"

"Then how do you get to your programs?"

"You mean my porn?"

"Uhmm... yes"

"I don't know, that's why I was calling you"

"Do you have an icon called 'My computer' on your desktop"

"No"

"Do you have a desktop?"

"Yes, I have my laptop on it right now"

"No, on your computer."

"Why would I put my desktop ontop of my computer"

"[insert long description of what the desktop metaphor is]"

"Oh... I don't think I have one of those."

"Why not?"

"I figured if I got rid of this thing you call the 'desktop,' then I'd have more room for porn."

"[hand to forehead]"

F-bacher

Problem with Themes.org

[IvyMike]

The problem with themes.org is that it is TOO good. Why should that be a problem? It's so good that nobody else is even trying; there's no point. Unfortunately, this makes it a single point of failure (I noticed this when attempting to find mozilla themes; when themes.org was down, it was tough to find anything worth downloading.)

Ok, so that's not a REAL problem, but I have been doing a lot more thinking about redundancy this week. Other people have mentioned this 'problem' about sourceforge, too. We need to make sure that there's not a single point of failure, and that these great sites and the themes/projects are kept going and accessible no matter what bizarre circumstances might happen.

Re:Problem with Themes.org

[Drone-X]

SourceForge shouldn't be a single point of failure anymore, the GNU project now has Savannah based on the SourceForge code. As far as I can tell it's open to all Free Software (as oposed to Open Source on SourceForge) projects. Upon registering your project you can even apply for it to become part of the GNU project ;).

Co-op sites

[BrookHarty]

Allot of the most popular sites are ran by the target audience. Slashdot gets its content from user submissions, the moderation is done by the users, the posts are the largest part of slashdot.

Some of my favorite sites are all user driver, blues news, betanews, slashdot, planetsites, freshmeat, themes, infoanarchy, kuro5hin, netctarine and tribalwar. And most of the news sites I read get their submissions and comments from users.

The only problem I had when Themes went down, its about the only place I know for icewm themes and theme screenshots.

themes.org alpha site

[lqx]

http://alpha.themes.org

wasn't that hard to find was it? :)

Collection of icons

[Ed Avis]

Is there a place for collections of icons and bitmaps for use in applications and themes? I couldn't find any sets of icons on themes.org.

Re:Collection of icons

[Spoing]

For backgrounds: From the main themes.org page, select Resources (x.themes.org). Even though there are quite a few Linux/Unix/*BSD-specific papers there, any site with a 10's of thousands of backgrounds will work. Personally, I'm a fan of ayo73's brutish, purple, music-themed Tux (www.73lab.com).

For icons: You're right. There is no one seperate place for most X icons. Themes often do include new icons or an entire set. For simplicity, icon packs would have to be specific to the window manager and/or desktop so that you don't have to set each individual icon. At that point, why not put it in a theme?

It would be cool if...

[Ed Avis]

Is there some way to automatically generate RPMs or dpkgs for window manager themes? Linux distributions could include a few hundred popular themes and a way to switch between them: that might get more new users addicted to the whole theming and eyecandy thing. Hmm, maybe not such a good idea ;-).

Re:It would be cool if...

[redhog]

Not automatically, but very easy. Prolly, you should be able to make a template .spec-file (for rpms, I don't know about .deb) for each window-manager/widget-set, and then only change the name/filenameprefixes in it for each theme. You could even make a shellscript which, given the name of the theme, generates it :)

So, if you know about .deb, or about themeing for different window-managers/widget-set, please contact me via mail, and we could start creating something!

Re:Customization in the work place

[JabberWokky]

I realize this is humor, but why would you sit on a phone call with them? In the age of internet connectivity being omnipresent, it makes much more sense that service would occur directly, through telnet or shared X sessions. When it becomes a serious issue to provide support to computer newbies (as opposed to linux newbies), distros will provide for this capability.

We can only hope that it will be adequatly explained to the user that allowing open access is a Bad Thing.

--
Evan

What they really need...

[mlknowle]

What they really need are volunteer lawyers; to defend them from the likes of Apple, MS, and everyone else who claims to 'own' themes...

Re:sound

[N8F8]

It may have somthing to do with the relatively recent advancments in audio compression technologies. Unlike graphic formats, where you can simply look at your intended use and easilty find a well established format, audio technologies are in the throws of a massive series of technological advancements. Solidifying on any one or two formats may be troublesome.

Is there a project equivalent to XFree86 for audio? Like you mentioned I see plenty of audio widgets, but little to make me believe there are well defined standards.

Re:Customization in the work place

[JabberWokky]

I won't let anyone have an open telnet to my box, and neither should they

Does that mean that if you run colo'd servers, you can't connect to them in any way? Of course, by "the distros will have to supply a system", I mean some sort of ssh style layer of encryption, many warnings, and the user telling a support tech their password over the phone.

I would imagine that that is much less dangerous than the current system of blindly telling someone with low mousing skills to go muck about in their control panel or registry.

--
Evan