Hello Brotherhood,

yesterday i discovered "UNO", a nice little patch/util that unifies the appearance of OS X. No more crappy metal, no more diversity, everything looks the same, which some may like (including me).

http://gui.interacto.net/

Compared to classic theming using shapeshifter, UNO has the advantage of NOT using any CPU-Time, because it swaps the graphic elements the "hard way" instead of having a task running the whole time (like shapeshifter).
Of course it backups the standard UI and offers a deinstaller if you don't like it anymore.

Only downside: Crystal Sausage stays. :-) ... Gimme some crystal mustard, NOW!

And it's freeware. :-)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: smithz,

quote:

Only downside: Crystal Sausage stays.

Groan. There's always a downside.

Wouldn't FONT CONTROL be the bomb? Doesn't it feel like we've waited half a decade for that?

FONT CONTROL?

F O N T C O N T R O L ??

This is a tricky one that Apple should offer and code, otherwise it leads to complete chaos IMHO.
My expections are that low these days, i was happy to find a free solution to cure the inconsistency.

We need to wait a little longer... <groan>

I think part of the whole problem is that people are happy with things that do small, half-assed improvements, rather than keeping after Apple to unify and strengthen the user experience.

The reason OS X looks like it was cobbled together with no design cohesiveness is that they are reluctant to think as the UI as a unified whole. I actually think they don't WANT it to hang together, because it's a more effective twiddle-machine, better at wasting time, if all the elements are disparate and confusing visually.

Overstimulation is the name of the game with Aqua, not productivity or unity or even customizability.

To break out of the casual use BS that has pooched the Mac for five years, they need to start remembering that the UI can SAVE us all work. It can actually make life easier, if you give it a chance and design it well.

It has to stop being a showcase for stupid special effects, which always become dated, and start being built for speed, commonsense, and reliablilty.