Making Ubuntu More Beautiful & Usable
by joe on December 17, 2010
Canonical has brought Ubuntu a long way in terms of polish and use. However, while I considered the built-in themes to be good, something still felt a little lacking.
I’m generally opposed to installing third party skins, themes, icons as they never feel part of the actual intended computing interface. Anytime I try to use a third party theme, I always end up reverting back. I’d rather have complete usable consistency than a pretty UI that breaks when it encounters a problem.
However, I have run across the Orta theme for Gnome. And I can say that it’s probably the best looking theme for Linux yet. In fact, it makes Ubuntu look downright gorgeous.
Here is a screenshot of the new UI:
Installing it is rather trivial. Along with the actual theme you’ll need to install an icon pack, nautilus extension, and I would recommend Gloobus Preview as well. Gloobus Preview is pretty much like Quick Look on OS X, a feature I consider unbelievably useful.
Here are some useful posts to get you up and running:
Nautilus Elementary + Gloobus Preview Installation
Orta Theme + Faenza icon theme Installation
Enjoy.
*Update 12/19* – Just saw this link on the OMG! Ubuntu blog about keeping the Orta theme consistent with Firefox, Chrome, and Docky.