Jaguar's Aqua stripes are blinding in a sense (you'd usually say this after you've been theming the interface). However, Aqua in Panther is great because of the nicer stripes. I don't hate the metal interface, but for the moment, I aquafied the two main applications that are metal for me: iChat and Safari. I had to move controls around a little so it would look right. Now, it pretty much looks like everything is Aqua for me! Of course, there's always iCal, but that can stay metal.
There's nothing wrong with the metal interface. I just wonder why they need to use two interfaces in the same operating system. The good thing about metal windows, though, is that you can drag them from ANY part of the window. That makes it a lot easier to move the window around.
I guess it just gives apple and mac developers more freedom when designing their UI, since some applications (albeit not the majority) simply look better in metal, like QT IMHO. With this kind of freedom, mac developers are less inclined to do everything they can to make their app look entirely different from others with their own custom "themes". This is what many applications are like on Windows (e.g. WMP, ICQ Lite, Trillian, to name a few); very disorienting from a user's standpoint. Compared to that, I would much rather have the elegance and consistency of just having aqua and metal. But to the other extreme, if all applications are aqua, then it would be rather difficult to identify the window I want with a whole stack of them on my desktop.
My apologies for repeating a poll from a year ago... I wasn't even born then
Well, you do have a good point there. They both have their uses and neither of them are ugly. As long as they're used in the right places they should be fine. And yes, QT looks very good with metal.
I had to vote for "Neither" but not because I don't like either Metal or Aqua but rather because there was no option of "I want to be able to choose to use either as well as other themes"...I suppose strictly speaking "I prefer neither" is correct but it makes it sound like I don't like either one. It sounds like "Feh!" as opposed to what I mean which is "I prefer a choice"...
So many polls leave out the option to choose "other" or "none of the above" type of answers (when applicable), that I seldom answer polls.
I prefer a consistent look thru-out ALL windows and programmes. Several types of windows, several types of widgets and several types of window-behaviour makes it actually harder to to guess in advance what does what. Colour is nice, but too much colour distracts you from your thoughts and that is one of those things that metal + aqua makes. Furthermore, metal seems to take up a little more space, and I think it looks clumpsy rather than refined. Besides, i like aqua and i am used to it, why suddenlty learn something new when there are so many other things to learn in the computer that is more usefull/important.
One thing that I don't like with aqua is that the stripes on the top of windows goes thru the title of the window. Am i not correct that in OS 9, the stripes do not go thru the window-title, making it both clearer to see which window is active, and "pushing" up the title. An other thing I don't like is the lack of visual marks when you are pressing the "scroll-bar" (whatever it is called). In OS 9 it became slightly darker when pressed, indiciating that you could move it up or down. I miss a lot of these small details....
Aqua rocks. the whole aqua thing made the mac os x feel unique. metal makes OSX look like XP - although the slightly flattened look of panther's aqau buttons have the same XP-ising effect
Brushed metal sucks my ass! I can't stand it. I'll move to Panther for the speed and updated features, but I'll hate the brushed metal look of the Finder.
Still hoping brushed metal will be an apprearance option...
In order to make a metal window aqua, you have to move some things around a little since metal has no titlebar. In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with either of them, and metal windows can be dragged from anywhere, which makes them pretty good. Because of the moving around of controls, it would be difficult to make metal windows look good in aqua and vice versa.
Okay, newbie question: how do I switch between the two?
Well, if you have the developer tools installed, you can change a window in Interface Builder to be textured or not. You can also use Metalifizer by Unsanity.
I like 'em both! It mostly depends on the app though. Certain apps look better Aqua, and certain apps look better Metal. Take iTunes for example. Without brushed metal, iTunes would look so wimpy...
Comments
Originally posted by giba
what's your preference?
I, like, answered this poll a year ago.
Hello, by the way!
Barto
There's nothing wrong with the metal interface. I just wonder why they need to use two interfaces in the same operating system. The good thing about metal windows, though, is that you can drag them from ANY part of the window. That makes it a lot easier to move the window around.
My apologies for repeating a poll from a year ago... I wasn't even born then
Barto
So many polls leave out the option to choose "other" or "none of the above" type of answers (when applicable), that I seldom answer polls.
One thing that I don't like with aqua is that the stripes on the top of windows goes thru the title of the window. Am i not correct that in OS 9, the stripes do not go thru the window-title, making it both clearer to see which window is active, and "pushing" up the title. An other thing I don't like is the lack of visual marks when you are pressing the "scroll-bar" (whatever it is called). In OS 9 it became slightly darker when pressed, indiciating that you could move it up or down. I miss a lot of these small details....
Still hoping brushed metal will be an apprearance option...
Cold Turkey
Originally posted by iSushi
Okay, newbie question: how do I switch between the two?
Well, if you have the developer tools installed, you can change a window in Interface Builder to be textured or not. You can also use Metalifizer by Unsanity.
But I find Metal to be slick, and a great theme for many applications such as Safari, QT, and the iApps.
I can't wait for the new Finder look in Panther. Aqua is nice, but it's just a bit too bright and white for me sometimes.