Brushed metal

**Koelling** · May 6th, 2002, 04:16 PM

I loved brushed metal. It was so new and flashy.....

In OS 9.

Today we paid our final respects to OS 9 but the awkward remnants of Platinum plus (as I like to call it) still linger. Aqua is the way to go. our windows don't need the brushed steal border because we have (at the price of very many CPU cycles) shadows!

Your new iChat makes me sad that it takes up so much space. Look at Adium or Omniweb. The content of the window goes all the way to the edges but it doesn't matter because shadows on the windows below it allow us to decipher the edge. iChat has conversation bubbles plus brushed steel border. I want to be able to have iTunes in maximized mode without looking like some Microsoft Windows corner to corner, full screen application.

I don't like themes and this is what brushed steel has become. I don't even get the choice to apply it to all my windows, it just gets put on my core set of apps that I use daily.

Make things logical again. Stick with one UI so that new folks to the system aren't wondering why some windows have no title bar and can be moved by the edges while others all look the same.

**Remco** · May 7th, 2002, 02:26 AM

I agree, the brushed metal look is outdated and doesn't fit in the Aqua-look. Strange that Apple is the one that doesn't follow GUI-rules at times. I think iMovie could be an exception, or even FCP, but all other apps, like iTunes and Sherlock, they should stick to Aqua.

**phatsharpie** · May 7th, 2002, 10:04 AM

I don't mind the brushed metal, but I do mind the inconsistency. If all iApps and other Apple apps use the brushed metal look, that's okay, or they should just abandon it all together. It's odd that Sherlock 3 is brushed metal, while Mail is not. So strange... I'd prefer all to be one or the other, at least that way I can look at it as an Apple app trademark.

**sithious** · May 7th, 2002, 10:16 AM

no more brushed metal, please please please... or at least make it a theme and let people like me who don't like it use aqua... aqua rocks, brushed metal is just ... alright.

**nkuvu** · May 7th, 2002, 11:02 AM

I agree with phatsharpie -- consistency, please.

**peteLasko();** · May 19th, 2002, 10:04 PM

I'd also like to see it something that could be turned off. It doesn't bother me in certain things. Quicktime, iMovie, iTunes, are all great because they are sort of physical in nature. But the instant messenger and sherlock don't really need it. It doesn't seem to fit. The IM should look like a brushed metal walky-talky if they want to use that theme (I am in no way sugesting a walky-talky look for this, just trying to illustrate the absurdity of using a physical texture on a more abstract interface)

**Hypernate** · May 22nd, 2002, 07:35 AM

I like it in iTunes. But that's it.

**TellarHK** · May 28th, 2002, 02:09 AM

I thought that consistency was an important thing to Apple, too. When I tinkered with OS 9 after getting my iBook, there were quite a few things I liked about it. The interface was functional, the look of everything was decent and I could select a theme. Unfortunately, X seems to have blown all that off to the side. As flexibly as they designed it, they seem to put an awful lot of effort into keeping people from actually making themes for the OS. Maybe they're trying to dissuade people from doing that in the first place so as to avoid the whole 'integration' problem that Microsoft had with IE and MSN Messenger.

I'd like to be able to choose brushed metal or Aqua for my entire system, not just some brushed metal apps with an Aqua interface. Though really what I'd like would be a graphite Aqua. Mmm.