No. That thread title doesn't come from the fact that stripes, transparency and blurry fonts have made me cross-eyed. I just couldn't bring myself to say something as cheesy as "Goin' on Safari" or "It's a jungle in here."

Observation 1: I use Duality to change themes to help camouflage all them stripes. Milk is the least obnoxious theme that I've found yet. I'm not sure if the widgets are Thalo-approved but the ones that it introduces aren't bad – by Aqua standards. So what that all the window widgets are an identical gray? My expectations have been lowered considerably. It's enough that I'm no longer staring at a traffic light in the middle of a jungle of stripes.

Using Duality with the Milk theme doesn't seem to introduce any serious problems. It gets rid of the stripes, gets rid of the semi-transparent menus, and gets rid of the blue slugs in the scroll channels. This is all good. But in the case of Safari, instead of turning a striped zebra (a metallicized one in this case) into a smooth white unicorn, it's turned it into an albino. The window widgets have all disappeared. The entire window title bar is blank white, although if you click in the correct spot you can still minimize, zoom and close. I suppose I could have hosed something by using a theme changer but I suspect that because the metal theme is changed out (something that doesn't happen to iTunes) that there is something non-standard about the interface elements of Safari. That would hardly be a surprise. iCal and iChat also go albino. iPhoto just looks a little strange. The message is clear though: Live with Aqua's problems or live with those introduced by a theme changer (I choose to mostly live without OS X altogether so I've solved both problems).

Observation 2: Why when I first launch Safari (pre- or post-Duality) does the new window always appear a half inch from the left edge and a half inch extending off the right edge of the screen? Come to think of it, why is my screen set to grayscale every single time I startup? I suspect I need to whack a pref. To me the whole fit and finish of OS X is reflected in stuff like this. I don't want to have to fight the damn computer for the easy stuff. The fighting should be left when we need to do more complicated and esoteric stuff, but not the basics. This just leaves me with the impression that this thing is a toy. It looks like a toy and it acts like a toy. OS 9 in comparison seems like a shining example of a well-crafted tool.

Observation 3: Do you think it's a good thing or a bad idea that the names of the bookmarks and folders on the Bookmark Bar highlight on mouseover? That's a pretty standard Windows behavior, although Windows usually does a much more subtle highlight rather than doing a reverse as Safari does. I find the reverse effect (surprise) to be harder to read. It then leads one to ask just what the principle is. Why don't menu names in the menubar highlight on mouseover? Why don't other buttons and widgets highlight on mouseover. What's so special about the Bookmark Bar? Is this a behavior that is going to filter into Aqua or is it just for Safari and if so why? When done with a very subtle highlight I don't mind the effect. I suppose the intent is to let users know that something is clickable. I haven't read the Aqua Inyourface Guidelines recently so I don't know if this is just another case of "Heck, that's cool. Let's do it!" or if there is a method to this madness.

Observation 4: This has nothing to do with Safari. But it's been some time since I spent any amount of time in OS X. I've been strictly using OS 9 at work and XP at home (and XP at work some of the time). I've adapted to XP's task bar quite well (I stick it at the top where it belongs). Switching among programs is simple and fairly intuitive – at least compared to OS X. I'd forgotten just how cumbersome the Dock is. Just switching from one program to another is a pain in the ass. I find myself hunting and pecking amongst the look-alike icons in the Dock trying to find an icon for the program I just clicked on a few seconds ago. Something is wrong here and it's not just my stupidity.