“As a designer, I like things to look good. This includes my desk, my computer, and of course, the operating system. That’s just one of the reasons I choose to use the Mac operating system,” James Dempsey blogs for Creative Guy.
Dempsey writes, “But Mac OSX isn’t perfect for me by any stretch of the imagination. I’ll skip over the commentary about OSX 10.1 through 10.3 and the ugly pinstripes we had to put up with. And when Apple introduced the brushed metal look of the Finder and many applications, I liked it… for a very short while. Now it just annoys the crap out of me. I probably wouldn’t mind quite as much if the ENTIRE GUI was brushed metal, but this mix of Aqua white, gray and brushed metal is horribly annoying to me. I just want to stand in Steve Jobs’ office door and scream ‘PICK ONE ALREADY!'”
Dempsey writes, “Thankfully, I don’t have to put up with it. There are plenty of GUI hacks available for Mac OSX. And I’m not talking just about the overall theme, but functionality hacks and add-ons as well. The following are just some of the GUI goodies I love and use.”
Themes:
• Unsanity’s ShapeShifter: Siro and Eternal Aqua themes
• Uno: stand-alone installer theme
• Site: InterfaceLift’s theme section
• Site: MacThemes forums
• Site: MacThemes.net
Icons:
• Iconfactory’s Pixadex
• Iconfactory’s & Panic Software’s CandyBar
• Site: InterfaceLift’s icon directory
• Site: IconFactory’s freeware icons
• Icon set: David Lanham’s Agau
Desktop Images/Wallpapers:
• Site: InterfaceLift’s wallpaper section
• Site: Deviant Art
Add-ons for customizing (hacks):
• FruitMenu
• WindowshadeX
• FontCard
• Xounds
• Mighty Mouse
• Menu Master
Dock:
• ClearDock
• Transparent Dock
• Onyx
Menubar add-ons:
• MenuCalendarClock
• YouControl
Services Menu Hack:
• ICeCoffee
• Service Scrubber
Also covered:
• Deskshade
More information and links for all of the apps covered here.
MacDailyNews Note: Besides using some of the above – Transparent Dock to name one – we also use PopCopy, SpiritedAway, and MenuMeters in all of our Mac OS X Menubars. What do you use to customize Mac OS X?
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Why isn’t this in Mac OS X already (part 2)? The American Balloon releases PopCopy 2 – June 17, 2006
MenuMeters: CPU, memory, disk, network monitoring menubar tools for Mac OS X – June 05, 2006
I don’t want everything to look the same.
I tend to try every hack, haxie, tweak, customization, utility, add-on, mod, edit, theme, Finder replacement, etc., … but then soon start yearning for that “stock Apple” look and feel.
I don’t even like custom desktop pictures much. I can barely use PathFinder (useful but cluttered!)
Same goes for web browsers. OmniWeb, Shiira, Firefox, Camino…I always end up back at Safari, happily.
The most radical thing that sticks, is I plunder Keynote themes for background images to use as my desktop picture. :shrug: But even that is “officially Apple” in feel.
Bottom line is, they are doing something right, after all.
Neutral Grey Desktop image (flat background with a hint of soft grain added) – being colour neutral is essential for design/photography work
Unsanity’s Silk – system font changed to Helvetica condensed – smart, compact and highly legible – speeds up navigation. work flow and gives more room on the screen. Apple’s system font (Lucida) is far too big and open… makes the OS look like a children’s book and is very slow and clumsy to navigate.
Butler – used ONLY to place a row of active icons for my 20 favourite applications on the right side of the main menubar – fantastically efficient, out-of-the-way, drag and drop.
Unsanity’s Window Shade – essential window collapsing – as in OS 9 (somethings can’t be bettered!!).
KillDock – instantly quit and launch the dreaded Dock (Apple’s ‘Clippy’) from the comfort of the menubar.
Dear Children,
Free choice is the greatest gift I gave to you.
Use it as you will. If you don’t like change, then don’t change. If you do, then change freely.
Personally, I find a small GUI change here and there to be refreshing in a way…and fun.