Ubuntu 16.04 packs some modern software, including the latest stable (3.20 IS NOT stable, whatever the GNOME team may say) GIMP ToolKit. We had seen this coming, and because we had provided support for it in Fedora 22/23, it hasn't been much of a hassle to fix the remaining bugs. However, the next-gen GNOME desktop will ship with GTK 3.20, which (almost) totally resets the way themes are rendered. According to this GNOME post, they've replaced many CSS classes with nodes, supposedly to improve speed and to allow further customization. Althought we've got most of the OS X and Windows 10 themes ported, it wasn't as easy as upgrading to GKT 3.18. Due to a lack of time, we have to redefine our priorities on the short and mid-run. Here is the expected roadmap for the next two or three months.
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So, it's been 3 months since we started this project, and it's been a lot of work (have a look at the changelog if you're not convinced)! So we decided to release a little more info about this theme that is growing very popular (almost 40K downloads).
1) It's been included in some Linux distros Yes, due to it's ressemblance to Windows 10 it has been integrated with the Linux Distributions AnemOS and FerenOS (it's seen in a system screenshot). We value the efforts the developers put in making Linux more accessible to the masses and are glad to contribute to their efforts. 2) It's been widely talked about Since we began analysing traffic to our website, we found out that quite a few webpages had talked about this theme : aside from our pages @ gnome and xfce-look, linuxadictos.com, tuxdiary.com, sempreupdate.org, lemondedestuts.org and nosolounix.com, as well as a link from linux.softpedia.com have furnished a lot of views to, mainly, the Windows 10 theme download page. 3) Video content is already out Being reviewed helps the visibility of the theme, so it's kind of a good thing. Xfce preview : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0jAqeIHbNw Ubuntu 15.10 : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W98H1GEchqs Mate DE : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=056O13Hkgbg&app=desktop plus an appearance in this comparison video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkB_nmTSlI4 UPDATE According to a poll from OMG! Ubuntu, our Windows 10 Cinnamon theme got voted among the top 5 best Cinnamon themes. Have a look at the article to know more. And now, the info we promised : The theme started when I started with a little project around September 5th, 2015. My purpose was to build a custom Windows 10 theme based on one of my previous themes, the B00merang-Glass theme, from which this group took it's name. So after having kind of finished, I released it, but I wanted a dark theme to use at night, so on Version 0.3 I added a dark variant. So, that's the theme's story in short words. Asked by one of our readers on how to get a realistic panel on ubuntu 14.04, we went on a quest to find out how. Until version 12.04, third-party tools allowed Ubuntu users to move the panel to the bottom of the screen. Nonetheless, in release 14.04 Canonical removed support for this function. Plus, Mark Shuttleworth said that the Launcher won't be movable in next releases either. So, considering we want to provide users with a realistic Windows-looking environment with our Windows 10 theme, we searched for alternatives. Here's what we found :
To install the Xfce Panel on Ubuntu, open a Terminal and type sudo apt-get install xfce4-panel Enter your password and you have successfully installed the package! Now we'll get rid (almost) of the left-aligned Unity launcher. Ennable the "auto-hide launcher" option in Settings > Appearance > Behavior, and set sensibility to low for the Unity launcher to disappear for good. To have the Xfce panel launch at startup, open the dash and search for Startup Applications. Once there, create a new launcher and in the command field, enter xfce4-panel. Save the launcher and log out. When you log back in, a dialog will pop up asking wich configuration you want to use. Usually, the default config is pretty similar to what we want, plus we'll save ourselves a lot of work! There's no problem with starting from scratch, but it's going to take some time. After making our choice, the desktop will look like this : Of course, you'll have to customize the environment to get one that fits your tastes, but, hey, at least we're not stuck in having this vertical Launcher, right? However, we want the desktop to look like Windows, so we'll continue with the tweaks. Right-click somewhere on the panel and select Panel > Panel Preferences. A configuration window will appear. Usually, if we chose the default configuration we'll get a dock similar to Docky at the bottom of the screen. We want to get rid of it, so in the drop-down menu, select 'Panel 2' and then press on the remove button. Oops! The config window just disabled itself! No problem, just select 'Panel 1' in the drop down menu to edit the panel left. We'll want it to align to the bottom of the screen, so we'll set uncheck the 'Lock Panel' option and then drag the panel to the bottom of the screen. We'll check the 'Lock Panel' now, since we want it to stay at the bottom of the screen. We can also adjust the color and size of the panel, add applets and edit it's behavior (automatically hide panel) from the settings app. I've set it to look a bit like a Windows 10 taskbar : Almost done! We'll now remove the text from the Window-list applet. Go to the Items tab and select the applet 'Window Buttons'. Next, press on the configure button to set its properties. A new dialog opens. Uncheck 'Show buttons labels' and we're done! Now we'll add a couple of launchers to the panel to access your preferred apps quickly. Back to the Settings Window, in the Items tab, we'll press the add button and choose 'Launcher'. A new launcher appears at the end of the panel. Right-click on the newly appeared icon on the panel and choose 'Properties'. In the new dialog that pops up, press the add button and choose the desired application. Save your choices and close all Xfce Settings Windows. You can add more launchers following the previous steps. Finally, after having created all the launchers you want, reorganize them so they appear right after the application menu. Do this by right-clicking on the panel, Panel > Panel Preferences and in the Items tab of the config window. You can then reorganize the items by selecting some applet and clicking the arrows to the right of the dialog. Finally, we're done editing our panel! Here is what it's supposed to look like : Of course, we found other alternatives searching for 'Ubuntu Panels'. Here are a couple of the results we found :
Comments or article suggestions? Contact us at our Contact page! Finally, we provide help to newcomers on how to install our themes.
After having received a couple of questions from users, we decided to publish our knowledge on this subject. Head over to the FAQ page to learn more on how to install pointer themes, icon packs and GTK themes on various Desktop Environments available for Linux users. How close is our windows 10 theme compared to the original Windows? We installed Windows 10 and found out The Windows 10 theme is our most popular one (close to 18 K downloads on gnome-look), and we were wondering if we could make it look even more to the original. Obviously, we can't edit the way applications work and look globally, so we had a look at similar features (ex. Start menu, File Explorer, Desktop...). Here is the result : So, wich look do you prefer? Let us know in the comments!
Monthly update - October 2015 So, after some reflexion I'm starting the B00merang blog to have you all up to date on our plans and coming themes and/or projects. I'll try to update at least once a month and probably will release some little updates during this time. So, for the near-to-end month of October, we are planning to :
Well, that's it for this month. Don't forget to have a look at our themes and see you next month! |
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Elbullazul Archive
February 2023
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