[ubuntu-art] Borderless windows: Goods and bads?

[Julian Oliver]

..on or around Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 10:04:13PM -0700, Dylan McCall said:

> Simple screenshot to show off:
> http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/3945/yayfu2.png

just quickly i'd like to show my vote for that screenshot. it really
does 'open up' the desktop as you suggest, prioritising the application
content over the window manager. a frustrating thing about Human, and
GNOME in general is just how in-you-face all those title bars are - all
these horizontal stripes of rich colour, the density of which accumulate
with every new window. it really dominates far too much i think. it's
too heavy.

to these ends it would be good to see before-and-after screenshots with
several 'typical' applications open. it may help to make your case.

that said what is seen in your screenshot may not be at all practical -
especially for those that aren't power users and know the
minimise/maximise key combinations by heart.

regardless, it is refreshing to see.

cheers,

-- 
julian oliver
http://julianoliver.com
http://selectparks.net
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..on or around Sun, Mar 23, 2008 at 10:04:13PM -0700, Dylan McCall said:
> Hi!
> 
> Sorry, this is a tad rambly, but I feel like pushing some thoughts...
> 
> I have spent a bit of time tinkering after discovering that I never use
> Metacity's window buttons. Pulled them out by editing metacity's stuff
> in gconf... I even tried removing the window titles by editing the
> theme, but it turns out I can't live without those. Changed to a
> different Metacity theme (Plano), although Human's theme was doing well
> with shrinking down the title bar. I think the results were quite
> striking. My thought was that programs usually have their own Close
> buttons and don't need the WM one. I hate redundancy, so naturally had
> to do it. (I also never use Minimize, instead bouncing windows to new
> workspaces when I don't need them for the task at hand. Need a button
> for that...)
> 
> The impact this fiddling has is kind of interesting: It makes me forget
> about windows and just see a program's own interface. Although people
> are pretty stuck in the crazy ways of window close buttons, I really
> think "simple" like this is how window decorations should be. By all
> means, they can add titles to my windows and work to keep them easy to
> tell apart, but far too many themes are instead striving to be noticed.
> Nobody cares about the window; it says nothing and is really just a
> superficial adjustment. The important part is the interface inside the
> window. Being noticable is the job of the GTK theme and only the GTK
> theme.
> 
> Something else that interested me was the effect of not having a border.
> Even with the same Human-Clearlooks GTK theme, having a different
> Metacity theme really made a difference. It kind of opened up my
> desktop, where the current Metacity theme seems to put everything into
> enclosed tanks, this one gives programs all the space available. I guess
> I could just go out and say "it looks Macish", although the same effect
> is possible with a theme that doesn't have the trademark silver gradient
> at the top. Besides which, the only thing Macish here is that it looks
> plain amazing.
> 
> Back in time even just a little, this type of theme was impossible
> because the way to get drop shadows was Compiz, but Metacity's simple
> compositor is finally bringing drop shadows to the masses! With drop
> shadows defining windows, we don't need borders except as little
> resizing handles...
> 
> Simple screenshot to show off:
> http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/3945/yayfu2.png
> 
> Another notable thing there, in my opinion, is what that still does for
> the GTK theme, even in its simplicity. This one is built to blend with
> the GTK theme, thus creating flow like we have with the rest of
> Clearlooks. However, this is finally a part of a window we can
> completely expect to be there, which is not the same for toolbars and
> menubars. With Human-Clearlooks, I can see trouble is being had in
> creating a flowing gradient because of that lack of predictability, but
> the effect can be achieved gracefully if the gradient happens with the
> Metacity theme. In essence, Plano is built to simply close the rough
> edges around GTK's presence, rather than to impose its own style on the
> windows.
> 
> Anyhow, I guess my point is that Metacity themes are very powerful
> things, and it would probably be worth pondering a fresh one for
> Intrepid Ibex. Obviously wouldn't fit Hardy, since the aim is not for a
> full theme re-imagining there and because Metacity's compositor is
> experimental at this point in time. However, I think Metacity themes
> could do with as much attention as GTK ones!
> 
> Bye,
> -Dylan



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