2) Themes are not actually useful. Anything other than purely aesthetic themeability (ie. the theme changes nothing other than some colours) is bad, in terms of UI design. The reason why everyone copies Windows' UI is because it's familiar. Uniformity of interface is a BIG DEAL.
If you're just talking about colours, is it really that big a deal? I'm just reading my mail and ssh'ing to my mail server. I don't care what the window dressing looks like, that much.
I disagree here. Colors do have a psychological effect. It is a good feature to let the user choose which color please him best. WinXP's default color scheme is illogical. It's way too bright and distracting. It was essential to be able to change them.
I could say that this feature can be forgotten if the colors are sober and don't distract from the work that need to be done (BeOS was like this IMO).
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2) Themes are not actually useful. Anything other than purely aesthetic themeability (ie. the theme changes nothing other than some colours) is bad, in terms of UI design. The reason why everyone copies Windows' UI is because it's familiar. Uniformity of interface is a BIG DEAL.
If you're just talking about colours, is it really that big a deal? I'm just reading my mail and ssh'ing to my mail server. I don't care what the window dressing looks like, that much.
I disagree here. Colors do have a psychological effect. It is a good feature to let the user choose which color please him best. WinXP's default color scheme is illogical. It's way too bright and distracting. It was essential to be able to change them.
I could say that this feature can be forgotten if the colors are sober and don't distract from the work that need to be done (BeOS was like this IMO).