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Sometimes I wonder why there isn't more enthusiasm around theming. Chicago95[0] is popular, but I also love how Garuda[0] themes KDE. There's some small website

Sometimes I wonder why there isn't more enthusiasm around theming. Chicago95[0] is popular, but I also love how Garuda[0] themes KDE. There's some small websites for downloading themes on various DEs, but most of them are a bit jank and it seems built-in support beyond basic things like accents aren't there. [0] https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95 https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95 [1] https://garudalinux.org/editions https://garudalinux.org/editions (screenshots don't do it justice)

wlesieutre 2y ago
Because it always works well for like two applications and everything else looks half assed
- seba_dos1 2y ago
  That's how it works in GNOME, yes.
  - wlesieutre 2y ago
    That and half of all new software being "draw a pretty picture, stick it in a webview" with no attempt to use the themeable widgets. Even on Mac OS there used to be solid theming support (thanks, Unsanity) because software all used the system UI widgets. Not nearly as common anymore.
amarant 2y ago
I used to really enjoy theming and Riceing, but then I realised it was pointless: my monitor always looks the same, with a full screen IDE window covering up all my fancy themes
- keyringlight 2y ago
  I think that speaks to another aspect, individual apps taking full control over how they're presented instead of inheriting whatever framework the DE is providing or the cohabitation of various KDE/QT/GTK/X/other, or electron framework defaults. Over on windows even when uxtheme skinning was in full swing it was the start of applications doing it themselves (winamp and quicktime come to mind), but I have the impression developers doing so made sure the extra effort had a payoff.
  - robinsonb5 2y ago
    I remember back in the day the apps most likely to have completely custom UIs tended to be scanner drivers. I'm not sure why!
WD-42 2y ago
The Gnome/gtk folks have been systematically removing theming capabilities for the last decade+ in the pursuit of an Apple-like philosophy towards ui. This has really killed a lot of theming because so many apps use GTK.
- cosmic_cheese 2y ago
  Even before that, GTK app theming was a bit hit or miss, likely because of the way GTK uses CSS for themes. Personally I believe CSS to be quite ill-suited for the purpose. It’s ok if you’re writing a theme for a bespoke one-off app but breaks down in the system theme use case. In particular, CSS inheritance makes for a lot of unnecessary trouble for both third-party themes and accessibility affordances. Last I knew there was something of a disinclination away from paramaterization in the GTK dev sphere too, which is another significant problem for third party themes and accessibility. Hardcoded fonts, colors, etc makes for pointless brittle rigidity.
  - WD-42 2y ago
    Before css there were engines, which were like families of themes. One of them was the pixmap engine which was what it sounds like: it used images to make up elements of the theme. Some of the most ambitious themes used this engine. CSS didn’t come until much later.
    - cosmic_cheese 2y ago
      Yeah I recall having to install engines for some themes. One of them was murrine I think?
  - ChocolateGod 2y ago
    GTKs CSS engine is great for app developers because it's powerful and easy. You can make something look slick with little work. But its terrible for themers, it's like running a CSS override on every site that runs Bootstrap and expecting it to work properly. It won't. I don't run any themes anymore so it doesn't bother me.
- 2y ago
II2II 2y ago
> Sometimes I wonder why there isn't more enthusiasm around theming. My guess: because it is difficult to develop software that can be themed and it is difficult to create themes that look good. Not only is it high effort, but it has relatively low returns. Themes mostly affect how things look and, ideally, have very little impact on functionality. I say ideally since, when there is an impact on functionality it is usually a negative one (e.g. buggy behaviour). Contrast that to a window manager or compositor: while it won't affect the functionality of individual applications (ideally), it does have a fairly significant impact upon how one interacts with the desktop as a whole.
AlienRobot 2y ago
Until I can change the color and font of everything on Linux the way I can on Windows XP, I'll never take Linux theming seriously. Seriously, just make GUIs. That is the solution to ALL of Linux problems. MAKE THE GUIs!!! I can't select the background color of panes from a color picker and instead I have to manually edit text config files and create folders inside dotfolders. Ridiculous. It's 2025.
pjmlp 2y ago
Probably because it gets tiresome after a while, I used to be big into Winamp themes, back in the 90's there were plenty of Demoscene and gamedev sites with desktop of the day, and what not. After a while it loses the appeal, we decide to just use whatever defaults get offered, finetune one or two options and that is it.
_fat_santa 2y ago
> Sometimes I wonder why there isn't more enthusiasm around theming I can speak to this personally. I used to always tinker with various Linux desktops, themes, etc but nowadays I just use vanilla Ubuntu with zero theming modifications. There are two reasons for this: 1. Like others have said, theming is easy but consistency is hard. I've found that anything besides Gnome just turns into a shitshow where half your apps just don't theme properly. 2. It's a massive time sink. While I could create a very consistent theme, it would involve a massive time sink into dealing with all the edge cases. When I was in college and just used Linux "recreationally", I could justify spending a ton of time tinkering with my system and getting everything perfect. But these days I use Linux professionally so it's less about having a beautiful desktop and more about something that just works and gets out of my way so I can get my actual work done. I should note that I still play around with other DE's and themes though I now do it all in VM's. I'm slowly building up my own theme stack on a Debian VM and once I get everything buckled up I might actually deploy and it use it on my primary machine.

wlesieutre 2y ago

Because it always works well for like two applications and everything else looks half assed

seba_dos1 2y ago
That's how it works in GNOME, yes.
- wlesieutre 2y ago
  That and half of all new software being "draw a pretty picture, stick it in a webview" with no attempt to use the themeable widgets. Even on Mac OS there used to be solid theming support (thanks, Unsanity) because software all used the system UI widgets. Not nearly as common anymore.

amarant 2y ago

I used to really enjoy theming and Riceing, but then I realised it was pointless: my monitor always looks the same, with a full screen IDE window covering up all my fancy themes

keyringlight 2y ago
I think that speaks to another aspect, individual apps taking full control over how they're presented instead of inheriting whatever framework the DE is providing or the cohabitation of various KDE/QT/GTK/X/other, or electron framework defaults. Over on windows even when uxtheme skinning was in full swing it was the start of applications doing it themselves (winamp and quicktime come to mind), but I have the impression developers doing so made sure the extra effort had a payoff.
- robinsonb5 2y ago
  I remember back in the day the apps most likely to have completely custom UIs tended to be scanner drivers. I'm not sure why!

WD-42 2y ago

The Gnome/gtk folks have been systematically removing theming capabilities for the last decade+ in the pursuit of an Apple-like philosophy towards ui. This has really killed a lot of theming because so many apps use GTK.

cosmic_cheese 2y ago
Even before that, GTK app theming was a bit hit or miss, likely because of the way GTK uses CSS for themes. Personally I believe CSS to be quite ill-suited for the purpose. It’s ok if you’re writing a theme for a bespoke one-off app but breaks down in the system theme use case. In particular, CSS inheritance makes for a lot of unnecessary trouble for both third-party themes and accessibility affordances. Last I knew there was something of a disinclination away from paramaterization in the GTK dev sphere too, which is another significant problem for third party themes and accessibility. Hardcoded fonts, colors, etc makes for pointless brittle rigidity.
- WD-42 2y ago
  Before css there were engines, which were like families of themes. One of them was the pixmap engine which was what it sounds like: it used images to make up elements of the theme. Some of the most ambitious themes used this engine. CSS didn’t come until much later.
  - cosmic_cheese 2y ago
    Yeah I recall having to install engines for some themes. One of them was murrine I think?
- ChocolateGod 2y ago
  GTKs CSS engine is great for app developers because it's powerful and easy. You can make something look slick with little work. But its terrible for themers, it's like running a CSS override on every site that runs Bootstrap and expecting it to work properly. It won't. I don't run any themes anymore so it doesn't bother me.
2y ago

II2II 2y ago

> Sometimes I wonder why there isn't more enthusiasm around theming. My guess: because it is difficult to develop software that can be themed and it is difficult to create themes that look good. Not only is it high effort, but it has relatively low returns. Themes mostly affect how things look and, ideally, have very little impact on functionality. I say ideally since, when there is an impact on functionality it is usually a negative one (e.g. buggy behaviour). Contrast that to a window manager or compositor: while it won't affect the functionality of individual applications (ideally), it does have a fairly significant impact upon how one interacts with the desktop as a whole.

AlienRobot 2y ago

Until I can change the color and font of everything on Linux the way I can on Windows XP, I'll never take Linux theming seriously. Seriously, just make GUIs. That is the solution to ALL of Linux problems. MAKE THE GUIs!!! I can't select the background color of panes from a color picker and instead I have to manually edit text config files and create folders inside dotfolders. Ridiculous. It's 2025.

pjmlp 2y ago

Probably because it gets tiresome after a while, I used to be big into Winamp themes, back in the 90's there were plenty of Demoscene and gamedev sites with desktop of the day, and what not. After a while it loses the appeal, we decide to just use whatever defaults get offered, finetune one or two options and that is it.

_fat_santa 2y ago

> Sometimes I wonder why there isn't more enthusiasm around theming I can speak to this personally. I used to always tinker with various Linux desktops, themes, etc but nowadays I just use vanilla Ubuntu with zero theming modifications. There are two reasons for this: 1. Like others have said, theming is easy but consistency is hard. I've found that anything besides Gnome just turns into a shitshow where half your apps just don't theme properly. 2. It's a massive time sink. While I could create a very consistent theme, it would involve a massive time sink into dealing with all the edge cases. When I was in college and just used Linux "recreationally", I could justify spending a ton of time tinkering with my system and getting everything perfect. But these days I use Linux professionally so it's less about having a beautiful desktop and more about something that just works and gets out of my way so I can get my actual work done. I should note that I still play around with other DE's and themes though I now do it all in VM's. I'm slowly building up my own theme stack on a Debian VM and once I get everything buckled up I might actually deploy and it use it on my primary machine.