Poll: Should OpenShot change its default theme?

By , Published May 2, 2010

Following on from the launch of the OpenShot survey (which if you haven't filled in yet you should do so by clicking here) one criticism of OpenShot that I have heard time and time again is that its theme, for want of a better expression, sucks.

OpenShot does ship with several extra less-glossy themes but with first impressions counting and all that I've decided to ask a question as best questions can be asked on a blog (that means through a vote). So: -

Should OpenShot change its default theme?

Article originally appeared on omgubuntu.co.uk

Related posts:

  1. Take the OpenShot Survey and the features YOU want
  2. Elementary OpenShot Icon Theme
  3. A Quick Chat With OpenShot Creator Jonathan Thomas
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  • Anonymous

    yes

  • clueless

    yes

  • http://blastfromthepast.se/ Tommy Brunn

    Oh yes! The default one is by far the ugliest of them. I prefer to use the Tango theme, but honestly, any of any available themes would be a huge improvement over the default one.

  • http://seifsallam.co.cc/ Seif Sallam

    I think everyone will agree on change.

  • Nordlicht

    Something more “gnome-ish” would look way more professional and smooth.

  • Anonymous

    Especially the time-line.

  • bhm

    It’s awful.

  • Anonymous

    should change it to the tango theme that is already installed.

  • Jimbo

    Why can’t it just reflect my GTK theme? I could forgive it for doing its own thing if it was beautiful, but clearly it is the opposite of beautiful.

    • http://sinlugareneltiempo.blogspot.com/ Rubenmv

      I think they should go to QT4 so it would look like your GTK theme, like my QT4 theme and maybe a future Windows or OSX theme.

      • jedsaid

        Okay KDE people. Stop lying about the native rendering capabilities of your toolkit. It doesn’t look native on the Gnome or OSX or Windows desktop. At all. The color scheme adjusts but that’s about it.

        The FOSS world isn’t going to recode their applications into your minority toolkit (and yes, Qt is a minority toolkit) because of a bogus claim that they fit perfectly well anywhere.

        • Anonymous

          Skype is QT, and it looks virtually identical to GTK

        • http://sinlugareneltiempo.blogspot.com/ Rubenmv

          Take it easy man, I’m not talking about KDE, I’m talking about QT4 only, which not only adjusts the color scheme, take a look at SMPlayer. I think apps like Openshot, which are not dependent on a specific DE, should go QT4, at least they would look fine.

          • jedsaid

            I repeat my statement. QT4 does not blend in, and if you think Smplayer looks native on Gnome, I would suggest you get your eyes checked.

            I don’t mean to act the GTK fanboy asshole — I use Kubuntu on my alternate laptop — but I’m sick of QT4 proponents peddling these blatant mistruths.

          • Anonymous

            As a kde-user, I agree with you but with a kinder tone. take it easy : )

          • http://sinlugareneltiempo.blogspot.com/ Rubenmv

            Well, I know what you mean but I still prefer QT4 for my Gnome and KDE desktop, I think it’s like a midterm. Like Opera, it’s better now (or will be), a Gnome, KDE, Windows and OSX version, all well integrated with each DE, but if I can’t get that, I prefer QT4.

        • anon

          Qt in Gnome looks much better than what GTK looks like on KDE.

  • Anonymous

    While I don’t really dislike the current theme, it could be better. Something smoother perhaps? Soft highlighting and shading instead of all the glossy-ness? If no that’s okay too :p

  • Anonymous

    Hell Yes, absolutely change it’s ugly theme :)

  • Paulo Cesar

    Some interface upgrade is always welcome , but what worry me the most in OpenShot are the Effects tab. When I add some effects to my projects, the app simply goes crashing. I am on Ubuntu Lucid right now and I can not do these kind of things. By the way, the whole transitions work like a charm. Before thinking about the UI, they could make some polishment over the effects. Some of them are not fully functional with the MLT version brought by Ubuntu repositories, so they could deactivate them to prevent crashes. And for modest computers, some effects do not work at all. I do not know if these problems are related to the absent support of OpenGL provided with my graphics card.

  • Ken Ham

    If they care about usability at all they should be good citizens and follow whatever the GTK theme is.

    This is typical Open Source developer attitude shining through: why worry about the features everyone expects, when you can bolt a butt ugly theme onto your application? The guy who did that theme should read the Apple HIG, they got it right, work on what people expect first then worry about differentiation.

  • mystictheory

    Yes. Tango is the way to go.

  • Anonymous

    If they can make the default reflect the system icon theme then make it like that … if it can`t be done then i don`t care wich one is default because i can change it very easy.

  • Anonymous

    Keep it simple, stupid! (KISS)

    Just stick to the chosen theme, like PiTiVi does.

  • Anonymous

    If at all possible, I think its best to adapt to the users GTK/Icon themes. Shipping some sexy custom cairo widgets that change their color with your GTK theme would rock and using/supplying system icons is always good.

    • Zsolt Sándor

      Actually that’s what I like about Linux DEs: their consistent themes and icons gives them more aesthetics than anything else. Looking at various Win apps and their inconsistent looks make me want to throw out. And they are being marketed as stylish. They aren’t.

    • Anonymous

      exactly. Everything should come with full GTK compliance.

    • Yi Sun-sin

      You are right. The application should as much as possible fit in the system theme (which should be that hard, as it is written in GTK), and should provide icons that follow the Tango guidelines, because making your icons integrated in any user theme is what theses guidelines were written for !

    • James

      Agreed, it should match the current GTK/icon theme. Apps with themes should have died out already.

    • Anonymous

      That`s the only way they should change it …. if they can`t do that it doesn`t matter if they change it or not because none will look good with all the different icon themes available

  • gantenbein

    Yes, it’s too glossy, in a kitschy way.

  • Anonymous

    They should go along with the new fad, which is actually helpful and ideal- monochrome icons. If they can’t adopt the GTK theme’s buttons, then they should at least make something that’ll work with every theme to some extent.

  • Anonymous

    Hells yes!

  • http://wakoopa.com/xfact XFACT

    Openshot has better themes but not as default :

  • Anonymous

    It’s not that OpenShot should change its theme, it’s that its UI should conform to gnome specs like other apps. That way you can change the system theme and the themes of the applications follow suit. Having separate themes for each application is madness.

  • http://www.theonyxcard.com/ credit card for bad credit

    I would say yes it should change the default theme. Because the default themes are worst according to me and it badly need to be changed.

  • Johan

    How about changing the name? “open”-anything sounds bad.

  • Tull_Power

    There are far more serious and consistent issues to be addressed with Openshot, first and foremost stability. The lack of a good video editor on Linux is all that’s keeping me from obliterating my Windows partition. I’ve recently tried out each new version of KDEnlive and Openshot (both based on the MTL libraries) and they’re both extremely flaky, to the point of being unusable. Openshot being much more buggy then KDENlive. The author’s assertion upon V1.0 release that it was rock solid was a joke. Currently, it might be used for a simple two or three minute video, but anything more then that, and you’re heading for a user experience from hell.

    • http://omgubuntu.co.uk/ d0od

      Y’see I hear this quite often from people and there is some merit in it: i edit some HD videos with OpenShot and for the most part it is stable, crashes only seem to occur when using effects (in my case anyway).

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