Fitts Is An Interesting "Big Buttons" Metacity Theme

Fitts is a new Metacity theme created by albyrock87 (Alberto) who's also behind the cool new Avant Window Navigator Lucido style and also a Synapse developer. The theme is based on a mockup by rAX and is designed to use big buttons so they are easy to click.

The theme reminds me of Gnome 3's new theme called "Adwaita", except well, Adwaita lost its minimize and maximize buttons a few days ago.

Fitts comes with 3 variations as you can see in the screenshot below (and supports any color - set the color by going to the Appearence dialog, on the "Themes" tab, then click on "Customize" - obviously after you have applied the Fitts Metacity theme):

To install the themes, simply drag and drop the downloaded .tar.gz files to the Appearance dialog box ("Themes" tab).

Download Fitts

"Divergence IV: A New Hope" Updated To v0.7.7, Comes With Installation Script And More [Gnome Theme Pack]

The beautiful Divergence IV: A New Hope theme (which we've previously covered HERE) got a big update today. The theme now comes with a script that allows you to choose from 3 Nautilus styles, 3 panel styles and 4 menu styles.

The script only tweaks the styles mentioned above and installs the Metacity theme, however the package comes with many other goodies: 5 amazing Emerald themes, an AWN Lucido theme and even a CoverGloobus theme.

Here are the exact styles that the install script can tweak:

How to install Divergence IV: A New Hope v0.7.7+

Once downloaded (download link at the end of the post), extract the .zip file and double click the "install.sh" file and select "Run". When you finish selecting the style for Nautilus, the panel, menus and so on, you will find the theme listed under the Appearance Preferences dialog (System > Preferences > Appearance).

For installing the latest Murrine engine and using the Emerald themes, see our previous post on Divergence IV: A New Hope.

Jurialmunkey, the Divergence IV: A New Hope author recommends installing Nautilus Elementary and Faenza Dark edited or AwOken icon themes.


Download Divergence IV: A New Hope 0.7.7

Image credits: Jurialmunkey

Ubuntu 10.04: The Easiest Way To Move The Window Buttons To The Right [Newbie]

We covered lots of ways to move the Metacity window controls (buttons) back to the right in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx: from Gconf Editor to gconf via command line, Ubuntu Tweak or the MWButtons script. But all these may seem complicated for a complete noob and for this reason I decided to write this post.

Most new Ubuntu users have no idea how to use a terminal (and are scared by it), Ubuntu Tweak may seem to advanced and so on. But MWButtons now has a PPA and thus you can simply download a .deb file.


So, the easiest way to move the window buttons to the right (or any other order) in Ubuntu 10.04 is to download THIS file , then double click it and install it. Once installed, in the menu go to Applications > Accessories > Metacity Window Buttons and change the button layout to whatever you want:

Final Decision For Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Window Controls Placement Announced By Mark Shuttleworth

Mark Shuttleworth announced seconds ago that the Metacity window controls will remain on the left in Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx), however the order will change to: close, minimize, maximize.

Here is his entire comment:

Thank you to everybody who has participated in this discussion.

The final decision on window controls for 10.04 LTS is as follows:

- the window controls will remain on the left, however
- the order will change to be (from left) close, minimize, maximise

The decision is based on the view that putting the close button in the corner will be most familiar to many users, even if the particular choice of corner is not.

For the avoidance of doubt, this is not a comment dependent on the date
:-)

Our intent is to encourage innovation, discussion, and design with the right of the window title bar. We have some ideas, and others are already springing up in the community. We welcome participation on the Ayatana list, where those can play out. This will be a fruitful topic for the design track at UDS in Brussels in May.

This bug is now marked wontfix. Please focus ongoing participation on the opportunities for innovation that this opens up. The decision as to the window controls location and order itself is now final, and as they say in the old newspapers, no further correspondence will be entered
into.

So Ubuntu 10.04 LTS will have the window controls placed identical to Mac OSX. Well, I for one am still waiting for the Global Menu to be included by default like in the website mockups.

If you want to put the Metacity window controls on the right or change their order, don't forget you can use Mwbuttons (Metacity Window Buttons), a really easy to use GUI which comes with presets. Also, now when using another theme (except Dust - but that should be fixed soon), the buttons will automatically move to the right so basically the left-side buttons only apply for the new Light Themes (Ambiance and Radiance)!

Note: Like Mark states, this has nothing to do with 1st of April (just to make things clear!) even though some might consider placing the window controls on the left a bad joke.

More Right Window Button Ideas For Ubuntu 10.10

Since Mark Shuttleworth said that moving the Metacity window buttons to the left "opens up the space on the right nicely", lots of button ideas came out. The most controverted one is probably Esfera, an idea by Pablo Quirós which Mark Shuttleworth forwarded to the Ayatana mailing list.

A recent idea by Izo makes a lot more sense than all the previous ideas. Have a look (it's called "The Workflow Button"):

Izo is the same guy who came with the amazing idea of integrating Zeitgeist into Nautilus, but unfortunately he's not a programmer so his mockups are just... images, if or until someone tries to implement his ideas. Hopefully someone @ Ayatana sees this and takes it into consideration as it seems (at least in my opinion) something far more useful than Esfera - and here I'm also taking into consideration the "n00b factor" because Esfera can produce some serious confustion among new Ubuntu users.

Izo gives more details on his idea @ http://www.design-by-izo.com/2010/03/29/workflow-and-upload-two-new-button-concepts-for-lucid/

Fixed Ubuntu Light Themes Metacity In WebUpd8 PPA [Lucid, Karmic, Jaunty]

First of all, for those not interested in fixing the Ubuntu "Light Themes" or not interested in these themes at all: I'm sorry! But new things just keep coming up. Hopefully everything will calm down soon.

Now, about the fixed Light Themes for Ubuntu Jaunty, Karmic and Lucid: I just posted about a PPA which has a fixed Light Themes package for Lucid, but that PPA doesn't have packages for Karmic and Jaunty and also that package replaces the original Light Themes.

Mohegan asked if we could upload a fixed light-themes package in the WebUpd8 PPA and so we did, but we tried to please as many people as we can, so:

• the package was uploaded under the "light-themes-fixed" name and the themes are now displayed as "Ambiance-Fixed" and "Radiance-Fixed" in the Gnome Desktop Appearance dialog. That means that the "light-themes-fixed" package does not replace the original "light-themes" package so you can have both of them installed and use whichever you want. The original "light-themes" package is of course still available in the WebUpd8 PPA (for Jaunty and Karmic).
  
• we packaged the themes for Ubuntu Jaunty, Karmic and Lucid (as well as the latest ubuntu-mono icons, humanity-icons packages and of course the latest Murrine and Aurora engines).
• the advantage of using this PPA is that I will try to update the fixed packages as soon as new versions for the original "light-themes" package in Ubuntu Lucid are released.

In case you didn't understand what this "fixed" does, well, it fixes the border around the minimize/maximize buttons so you can put the Metacity window buttons in the "minimize,maximize,close" order like the buttons were on Ubuntu Jaunty, Karmic and so on.

To install this light-themes-fixed package, add the WebUpd8 PPA:

Ubuntu Lucid and Karmic:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8

Ubuntu Jaunty:

sudo bash -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/nilarimogard/webupd8/ubuntu jaunty main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 4C9D234C

Then, to install it in Ubuntu Lucid:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install light-themes-fixed

Or to install it in Ubuntu Karmic and Jaunty:

sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install light-themes-fixed gtk2-engines-murrine ubuntu-mono gtk2-engines-aurora

Once you install and use this fixed package, if you have the wrong button order in Metacity (maximize,minimize,close), simply paste this in a terminal to fix it:

gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/metacity/general/button_layout "menu:minimize,maximize,close"

Or use Mwbuttons to play around with the Metacity button order.



For the fixed Radiance theme I used the package I released about a week ago: Download Radiance With Minimize And Maximize Buttons Back To Normal and for the Ambiance theme I used the fix from Marcoc2 (so all the credits go to him).

Mwbuttons: Complete GUI For Customizing Metacity Window Buttons Order

Mwbuttons (Metacity Window Buttons) is very easy to use yet complete GUI for customizing the Metacity window button order. I really like the way this was implemented because it is very intuitive and easy to understand by new Ubuntu users.

Using Mwbuttons you basically have a horizontal line with all the buttons and you can chose which button and it's placement, exactly the way it will be displayed in Metacity:

Another nice feature for new Ubuntu users is that Mwbuttons comes with presets: Lucid Style (buttons on the left ordered: maximize, minimize, close), Karmic style (the normal style with buttons on the right ordered: minimize, maximize, close) and OSX style (buttons on the left ordered: close, maximize, minimize) as well as a "restore style" option:

I really hope that either Mwbuttons or Alex Eftimie's idea to put an option in the Gnome Appearance Properties for customizing Metacity buttons order will be included in Lucid!

To download and run Mwbuttons, simply run this in a terminal:

wget http://launchpad.net/mwbuttons/trunk/v0.2/+download/mwbuttons
chmod +x mwbuttons
./mwbuttons

[via LinuX Freedom for Live]

Download Radiance With Minimize And Maximize Buttons Back To Normal [Ubuntu w/ Gnome Metacity Theme]

The new Ubuntu "Light" Radiance theme comes with the minimize and maximize buttons inverted. I have edited the original Metacity theme to put them back ("minimize-maximize-close").

Since I only had the .png files I did my best but it's not 100% perfect. Still, I think it looks just fine:

To install it, extract the archive and copy all the files to /usr/share/themes/Radiance/metacity-1, overwriting the original files (make a backup first) - note: you must open Nautilus as root for this: enter: "sudo nautilus" in a terminal. Then change the Metacity theme to any other theme and then choose Radiance again to apply the changes (kind of like a restart of the theme).

To order the buttons "minimize-maximize-close": enter this in a terminal:

gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/metacity/general/button_layout "menu:minimize,maximize,close"

Download Ubuntu Radiance Min & Max Back To Normal Metacity

Update: and here is Ambiance fixed too.

Almost Official: Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Will Have The Window Buttons On The LEFT!

An update came seconds ago in Ubuntu Lucid (it's not yet in the repositories but should be available soon), stating that:

ght-themes (0.1.5.4) lucid; urgency=low

* debian/gconf-defaults:
- correctly set the wm buttons on the left corner

[ James Schriver ]
* Fix dark menubar text OOo (LP: #532461).

I didn't even install the theme yet, instead I looked at the source code and it clearly states:

/apps/metacity/general/button_layout maximize,minimize,close:

Notice the ":" on the right of the gconf value (you can extract the files from the .deb file and look for yourself). That means the buttons will be displayed on the left side by default. Obviously this can be changed easily by changing the gconf key, but now we now why the maximize and minimize buttons were initially inverted.

Want to put them back on the right? All you have to do is press Alt + F2, enter "gconf-editor", navigate to /apps/metacity/general/button_layout and set the key value to ":maximize,minimize,close" (without the quotes).

Another really bad thing about this new default buttons on the left is that it breaks a lot of themes like Dust, Dust Sand, New Wave and probably a whole lot more. What will the new users say when they try to change the theme and they get a really messy look?

To fix this, follow the same instructions as above, but put the minimize button first, like so: ":minimize,maximize,close"

This recent update made me wander if the Global Menu jkltechinc spotted in a tiny screenshot from the Ubuntu website mockup will also come true! Apple, here we come (or they...)!


There is just one thing I'd like to add:

Download the new light-themes.deb file

Please keep in mind that things will change, so it's not 100% sure the window buttons will stay on the left. But for now, that seems to be the plan!

Related: you may also want to read the initial post with all the theme changes in Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid.

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Homosapien Metacity Now Has A Customizer You Can Use To Easily Edit The Theme

The Homosapien Metacity theme (mock-up initially posted @ Ubuntu Lucid Artwork wiki) now has a Customizer which allows you to edit the base Homosapien theme so that it suits your taste.

Using the Customizer, you can change the colors, font size, padding, round corners, etc. The Customizer is web-based, meaning you can edit the theme right before you download it:

Note: make sure you delete any existing Homosapien installed theme before installing the new one, or else you won't be able to install it (delete the Homosapien folders in your ~/.themes folder).

Here is an example of a customized Homosapien Metacity theme to fit the colors of the New Wave theme:

You can download the latest Homosapien Metacity theme and find a link for the Customizer @ gnome-look.org