Aqua Taskforce

Watchful wrote on September 27, 2008, 2:57pm

Ummm no... just no! Leopards current folders are very elegant. The folders in the screen shot are just ugly!

ebaur wrote on September 27, 2008, 3:18pm

Okay... so they change them to what you like and a number of other people complain that *those* are ugly. You can't "fix" something like this, since it's not a problem, it's a taste issue.

One partial solution is that Apple could allowing themes out of the box. This breaks one of the core habits of Apple, (or at least Jobs, it seems) which is to make things look like what they want them to look like. Each OS release has had a certain feel to it and no significant options to change it automatically.

Many don't like this, and there are third party tools to change it, if I remember correctly (I don't use them... tried years ago, didn't like it). As an IT person, I actually like the similarity between platforms, since it makes it just a tiny bit faster for me to get around in the OS.

mojo2012 wrote on September 27, 2008, 6:46pm

@watchful: those icons in the screenshot are just an example. All I wanted to show, is that the standard icons are boring, monotonous and hard to recognize on dimmed screens.

abitgone wrote on September 27, 2008, 10:11pm

Why don't you just change your own folder icons? You can do that, you know.

mojo2012 wrote on September 28, 2008, 9:38am

I did!

polycat33 wrote on September 29, 2008, 12:44am

I agree with you about the default folder icons in Leopard. However there are several different ways you can change the icons, and everyone has different tastes (and different opinions on how important a change even is) so I think what we currently have is fine. If they bug a person enough, that person will seek out ways to change them and will find ways, and be able to change them to whatever they want. It's not difficult at all. And Apple has always been against customization like that so I don't see an out of the box ability to change them EVER happening.

jasper wrote on September 29, 2008, 12:19pm

I find them atractive and unitrusive.

However, it was not the smartest idea to use the Vista folders as an example on this mac-freaks site. Why? Because these guys demote you for even mentioning Windows. I mean, Windows is just plain ugly. It's got attractive folder icons and a good look (wich everyone will tell you it's a "rip-off" oif Aqua, even though it looks nothing like it) - so what's there to like? Nothing, because Apple is always right.

As a side-note on my remark, the icons for Windows were designed by The iconfactory, and those guys are pretty good.

Apple shouldn't have replaced the folders in the first place - the others were easier to distinguish. But I like them nonetheless. You do have a point, but it's exagurated.

ebaur wrote on September 29, 2008, 3:26pm

Dude, jasper... calm down. In the six comments above yours, only one person said that the screenshot had ugly icons. And I think that Watchful is entitled to an opinion. Personally, I use Windows XP everyday and only glanced at Vista now and then... I had no idea that those were Vista icons, and it doesn't matter. I don't like them, and I can think of ways to improve the current OS X icons - but nothing is broken here.

The point I brought up before is still valid: some people will like the change and some won't. Your dislike of the current icons is not a bug, not an annoyance and not a problem worth fixing. When people complain about entirely cosmetic things, it comes across to me as if you can only think about yourself OR you can't get over Windows and want things on the Mac to look & feel the same. Think about the larger issues: Is it unusable? is it confusing to new users, etc. (I would argue that the names are more important to a new user than the icons and, if the icons are too different, then a new user may not realize that they are just folders... I think that's part of why they are more subtle in the new OS. Apple wanted to make people see them as just the folders that they are.)

The fact is, there are many utilities out there to change the look and feel of the OS and I expect that they will *never* be a standard part of the OS. That happened once, back with OS 8, I believe, and it was underutilized and gone in the next version. It's not something Apple does. Still, that would be a better solution than just changing them.

jasper wrote on September 29, 2008, 5:16pm

You make a valid statement here, ebaur - and nothing in it is opposed to my stands (I just said that the mockup strangely enough used vista icons - and the true Apple-geekquads (you'll find them on this site, I've met with them and lost) would take offence).

Still, this a matter of preference.

On the other hand, just a quick search will find you icons much better suited for MacOS X! Really, there's some good iconwork out there.

Anyone remember how quickly people responded when the old folder icons were replaced by the ones now? I personally love them - much simpler, unified and interesting (the details: it's made from recycled paper).

One more thing, completely on the side, but why do I only see German screenshots? Nobody here from, say, America or France?

gordoreg wrote on October 27, 2008, 8:54pm

I like my icons!!!
http://img233.imageshack.us/my.php?image=picture1copytb4.jpg

spidouz wrote on December 12, 2008, 2:57pm

Hi Mojo,

honnestly, I think everyone should be able to use the graphic they want. It just matter of taste... so nobody knows the truth and right thing.

I would like to know a little thing:

- Do you have any link to LittleIcon or something similar?

Thanks,
Spid