Mint looks outdated (visually) time for a new lick of paint.

[cloud-gazer]

Look I love Mint as an OS how it works but you guys are seriously behind the times in the looks department.

Looks do matter in attracting users and the first thing anyone sees with Mint is dull looking battleship grey and lots of it! Then there is the hugely retro pre-rendered 3D text wallpaper Mint ships with, that is not a good wallpaper selection for any modern OS.

The answer is not "feel free to come up with your themes", this is something affecting the core of Mint unless you intentionally want to to remain a tiny niche OS club.

1) Commission a colourful wallpaper, it can have a mint leaf as a nod to the name of the OS, see this leaf artwork as a nice example.

2) Commission a skin artist to revamp the look of Mint (no need to change icons just skin the UI), you can do plain grey/white far better than what your currently doing like this example, or go for a more colourful OS emphasising the green side of Mint like with this classic WinXP skin watercolour or Luna Inspirat.

Or go for something sharp/crisp like this which is the very in vogue look right now.

There are loads of artists out there who work cheap and it's not just competing against Windows or OSX, Android/Chrome OS look better too and even Ubuntu it starting to sharpen up its act, not to mention the other off shoot Elementary which looks far better than Mint/Ubuntu.

For the most part Windows users aren't going to switch to an uglier looking OS they want something that is equal or better, Mint isn't delivering that on the visual front.

[ClutchDisc]

Linux Mint is one of the most popular Linux distros... seems they are doing fine!

No thanks to the above.. I love Mint just the way it is!

[eanfrid]

Tastes cannot be discussed but... I find many of the examples you show us to be worse than the original look, even eye-hurting for some of them

[SMarais]

Cinnamon like Mate and many other DE lets you put whatever look and feel you want. I find the original theme a bit to flashy but it's how you recognize this distro from others . No reason to change it.

[Distro-Don]

:shock: Tastes cannot be discussed but... I find many of the examples you show us to be worse than the original look, even eye-hurting for some of them :?

I agree. Leave it like it is. Those examples hurt my eyes too.

[SeriesOfTubes]

I like the overall user interface design, and its similarity to Windows made it palatable in the first place. However, I also don't like that bright eye-straining grey. The wallpaper chooser should also use thumbnails instead of loading full images to stop that annoying lag. I think LM17 has some nice backgrounds though.

[nomko]

@ loud-gazer:
The Mint development team decided to have Mint looking the way you get it, that's their choice and their decision to do so. After installing Mint and not liking the standard appearance it is up to you to change it the way you like it but within the limits of the possibilities.

[Bao2]

Look I love Mint as an OS how it works but you guys are seriously behind the times in the looks department.

Linuxmint is the refuge of those like me that don't want their computer to look as a smartphone. We hate that in our desktop that we use to program and so all the programmers have migrated to these "ugly" and "outdated" interfaces that we love so much because we can do with one click what you need at least 7 mouse clicks in your beautiful smartphonedesktop. We don't like the lateral ubuntu launcher, we don't like the gnome shit. We want it as it is in windows xp / kde / linuxmint. We are programmers and those that do the programs you run in your smartphone. Learn to program and you will understand how working in a smartphone desktop is just imposible. Also 3D people have migrated because there every guy does thousands of mouse clicks and in a smartphonedesktop it is much more clicks.

Now, I change some things in my Linuxmint. For example I try to not have white backgrounds on apps. For example my nemo app has a greyscale background instead the default white. I also change the windows to look that "coffee" look of old Classic ubuntu interface and the icons also. My linuxmint looks like the old classic ubuntu and the white backgrounds are greyscale (much better for the eyes when you are working hours and hours).

[austin.texas]

Good news on the color front:

Development preview:
The team focused on making folder navigation more fun.
Going forward, Linux Mint will ship with multiple colors. For those who don’t like green, you’ll be able to switch your icons and controls to blue, grey, pink..etc.
http://blog.linuxmint.com/?s=

[Shunjoss]

but you guys are seriously behind the times in the looks department.

Hum, I have a question for you : what do you prefer, A polished and eye-candy theme or an up-to-date, secure system ? Yeah, the file system and the thinking way of Windows didn't change since 1992...(But your example are to flashy or eye-hurting for me)
Anyway, I think my cinnamon really pretty and easy to use, neither flashy nor clicks wasting. I don't like green but I appreciate so much mint that I didn't change the green things (folder, menu, splash, lightdm) this is the way we recognize mint in the (Linux) world.
Also mint is used by lots of people. Not few.

For myself I have cairo + cinnamon + mac theme (except icons) + one hot corner + (alt+tab) coverflow(3D). We can't discuss about colours and taste but what i have to say : Mint is highly customizable, you can find your way to magnify yourself this OS.

[DrHu]

For the most part Windows users aren't going to switch to an uglier looking OS they want something that is equal or better, Mint isn't delivering that on the visual front.

Couldn't disagree more, if I tried
Win8x win9x

• What's that other than a tiled interface replacing the start button/menu selection --> for real work, not just playing
  --and some kind of hybrid OS, just like Google/s Android
  And they compete in the same markets: mobile (smartphones), tablets and computers; although Android seems to be winning against both IPhone and Windows' Phones

It is a modern enough look for me: I especially don't need any fancy extras: such as Apple OSX pastel colors or icon effects or Microsoft aero or such
--even Ubuntu if they follow too much trendy (fashion colors or themes or styles) will spoil the functional operation of the system

• By maybe spending way too much time trying to generate eye-appeal (eye candy)..
  --if they don't fall into that trap (and it is a diminishing return), then they will have a Linux OS that can perform better on the same hardware as Microsoft or Apple OSX or Google Android will ever manage

Lets hope the developers have more sense and keep the Linux OS reasonable and balanced in choice of approach.

And as an aside
--plenty of people offering theme sets for any of the Linux distributions, whether a main desktop environment such as KDE or Gnome or any of the other choices, as XFCE or LDXE

• Can I say I am not in the least worried whether or not a surge of MS Windows users switches to Linux[/color[/b]

--it would nice as a popularity measure, but not in the least bit necessary for Linux distributions to continue to prosper..

[Shunjoss]

Can I say I am not in the least worried whether or not a surge of MS Windows users switches to Linux
--it would nice as a popularity measure, but not in the least bit necessary for Linux distributions to continue to prosper..

Sure, I'm on Linux mint because i feel W8 too heavy! 25Go on HDD OS + 2Go of RAM only for windows without any app open, and linux mint is more on 11Go HHD and 1Go ram with some apps running.

[all41]

cloud-gazer

look at a few 'Mint' desktops on these posts
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 29#p916766

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... conky+show

If color is your thing have a look at gnome-color-chooser.

[karlchen]

Hello, cloud-gazer.

[...] unless you intentionally want to to remain a tiny niche OS club.

You caught us red-handed. We keep Linux Mint looking visually outdated on purpose. We camouflage an almost perfect operating system with an almost perfect pre-installed everyday software selection with an utterly unattractive cover in order to keep away all these Windows users who would otherwise start switching over to Mint inevitably.


(Mint 13 xfce Desktop - click image to enlarge, press <alt><cursor left> to return here)

Apart from this: de gustibus non disputandum est.

Cheers,
Karl

[eanfrid]

However, promoting looks over brains is never the matter of a good OS. Your pretty box will be anything but useless if the content is terribly bad.

[frodopogo]

If I understand correctly, desktop themes have the same effect as "skins" for music players, etc.
I don't mind the stock theme being a bit drab, since we all have our favorite colors.
It's how easy it it to change to a useable alternative. I don't really mind Mint shipping with neutral gray as long as the path to changing the look is smoother.
The ones that come with 17.1 are all different color variations on the same theme. Four or five more radically different looks, yet with fairly conservative button layouts would be nice.

I just posted on the "get more themes online" thing being not very user friendly, since it leads to the Gnome site.
It needs to lead to more thoroughly tested Mint-approved themes in the Software Manager.

The alternatives to the stock background are really quite nice, so the backgrounds really aren't the problem...
the themes are. The themes need to get as much attention and almost as much variety (I understand that a different theme is a considerably more labour intensive thing than a background) as the backgrounds are getting now.


A key useability aspect is light vs. dark. The least tolerable thing to me about the stock background is that it's too light, too bright a grey.
Some themes are way too dark for me, others WAY too light or bright. The stock themes are all pretty bright.

One kind of theme that doesn't get enough attention are those that have a mix of dark and light elements.

I discovered the Shiki-wise them a long time ago, and I like it because it has some dark features and some light features. In particular, I like the way it makes the tabs in Firefox stand out against the darker top area.
It also has the bottom menu bar quite dark, which I like, but Mint menu is a normal grey.

There's more than one way to skin a desktop!!!

[frodopogo]

Hello, cloud-gazer.

[...] unless you intentionally want to to remain a tiny niche OS club.

You caught us red-handed. We keep Linux Mint looking visually outdated on purpose. We camouflage an almost perfect operating system with an almost perfect pre-installed everyday software selection with an utterly unattractive cover in order to keep away all these Windows users who would otherwise start switching over to Mint inevitably.


(Mint 13 xfce Desktop - click image to enlarge, press <alt><cursor left> to return here)

Apart from this: de gustibus non disputandum est.

Cheers,
Karl

Es tut mir leid, Karlchen- wir sind schon HIER!!!!

The fact of the matter is that overall, Mint is the friendliest Linux distribution. While I understand that programmers and such want to get work done, and like the conservative aspects of Mint, many Windows users do too.... we have serious interests that don't happen to be programming, but cell-phone interfaces aren't appealing to us either. And actually.... many of us like conservative colors too.... I got into computers with GeoWorks, switched to Windows when that no longer seemed a viable option. Windows 95, Windows 98, and XP were all tolerable in the looks department... but Windows EIGHT????
The ugliest mix of garish colors I think I've seen on anything, anywhere.... what were they thinking???

Anyway.... overall what we older former Windows users want in a user interface isn't that much different than what you want. We're your natural allies in the conservative aspects of operating system design- we too would just like to get work done without having the rug pulled out from under us!

[JosephM]

I see a few people in this thread jumped on the original poster a bit with comments about not wanting a "smartphone OS". I don't think he said anything about changing workflows or functionallity, just look/themes.

There are a few things I think people should keep in mind when it comes to this sort of thing. As you can tell from the posts in this thread everyone has their own opinion on what looks good. The default Mint themes need to be neutral for just this reason. Could they be a little less monochrome grey? Could they use a little more modern styling? Sure, there is always room for improvement. I would rather get there through small changes over time then doing something radically different overnite. As far as I am aware changing themes in all the Mint desktops is pretty easy, so please take advantage of that to get the look you want.

Obviously nothing is ever set in stone but I doubt you will see Mint providing more default gtk themes that they create and maintain themselves. I don't think a lot of people realize the time and effort it takes to put together a good theme much less maintain it. Every new version of Gtk brings changes that the theme needs to updated for and sometimes they are significant. The advantage of the current color variations provided in Mint 17.1 is that they are designed in such a way that changes to the main green theme can be pretty much copy and pasted to the other color versions.

[DeMus]

@cloud-gazer
Your example: http://rainbows.deviantart.com/art/Lucido-335010243 "this example" is just what I hate so much about Windows 8 and 10. I personally would never ever use this. But as has been said here before, you can't argue about taste. It is so personal. When we install Mint we get the personal choice of the Mint devs. If you don't like it then install another theme, use a different wallpaper (or slide-show) and you make it just the way you like it.
Is it necessary for the Mint devs to use a different choice? No. They think what they deliver is Mint and it has to look like that.
When you are really unhappy with it try a different distro, one which is using the colors and themes of your choice, or as I wrote before change what you get for free.

[Habitual]

The answer is not "feel free to come up with your themes"

You are correct. the Answer is "It's Linux, do what you want."