Acts of Volition

Comments

Daniel Von Fange -

That is looking *Really* nice, guys.

Open source programs typically don't get much love and attention from designers.

I swapped Firebird in for IE on my parent's and sibling's computers, can't wait until I feel I can swap in Firebird for Outlook and Outlook Express. That day is getting near. :)

Thanks!

aab -

I wish it'd use my system colours. Not everybody likes blue. Also, I wish it'd use native widgets instead of imitating XP ones.

Though proabably might look good in XP with default blue.

ViperSnake -

Does it work on 0.1?

Nick Burka -

Steve/Daniel, the new skin looks great.

I'm curious how far along Thunderbird is. Have you <a href="http://www.actsofvolition.com/archives/2003/may/mozillafirebird" title="Mozilla Firebird v0.6: I have a new default web browser">switched over</a> to it as your primary email client?

Steven Garrity -

aab said: “...I wish it'd use native widgets...”

Well, the Firebird theme that we based this Thunderbird theme is based on came in another flavour that makes more use of native widgets. I'm looking into what's involved in doing the same with our theme. I'll post if I make any progress.

ViperSnake said: “Does it work on 0.1?”

I'm not sure - but we don't have any plans to support old versions of Thunderbird.

Nick Burka said: “... Have you switched over to it as your primary email client?”

Yes Nick, I have been using Thunderbird as my primary email client for about two weeks now. I like it, but I'm not amazed by it. It is stable enough to use as a primary app, but it still has prety of rough edges. I made the switch primarily as an experiment (I'm trying to move most of my software toward platform-independent software in hopes of an eventual OS switch) and so I could better work on the theme.

I never thought highly of Outlook anyhow, so in that respect, there wasn't much competition. That said, Outlook 2003 looks to have some attractive improvements (collapsible natural language date grouping in the inbox, three-pane view with larger email area) - though it does have an ugly new interface style.

Ryan Powers -

I am quite happy to report that it is quite tasty on the Mac OS X build as well.

John Simmons -

Cool, this theme is on the right track!

But as per the other comments, I wouldn' mind seeing this in a native widgets version and also with smaller icons (not everyone likes the default big icons)

Personally I've made a complete switch to firebird/thunderbird both on my home xp/linux boxes & my work laptop for nearly 1 month now and I'm happy I did.

Levi Bucsis -

John, I can see color preference being an issue of personal preference, but when it comes to icon size, the bigger the better! In the interest of speed and hit:miss ratio, bigger reigns supreme. My issue with most Firebird themes is the icons are way too small, but I use mouse gestures and keyboard shortcuts anyway.

Steven, please don't take this the wrong way, but in the opening sentence of your post there should be a comma after Daniel Burka.

b0nyb0y -

I have to agree with John. Currently I'm using a different visual style, and it just seems strange for Thunderbird to be the only app that still has original Luna-blue colors. Also, IMHO, big icons are good for most parts, but when you're using low screen resolution, big icons just take too much space.

This's not to say that I don't like this theme though. It's REALLY nice. I've switched away from Qute already.

Thank you for making this theme. :)

John Simmons -

Wow... don't get me wrong I don't mind big buttons, I just meant that I wouldn't mind the inclusion of the small icons that outlook has as well (you can select between large/small icons when you customize your toolbars).

At the moment when you select 'Use small icons' it just uses the default thunderbird ones instead of themed ones.

I like to go for the 1 tool/menu bar approach with my apps when I can, one toolbar with only the buttons I use on it.

Hope that clears it up!

Keep up the good work

angelday -

What if Steven ends up using Outlook 2003? Or are we dealing with more commitment?

Jonathan B. Horen -

Yo, Steve! I love it! For years I've been using the old Fvwm95 window manager, which I'd modified as much as I could to be like Windows 2000, but then along came XP... Anyway, I recently moved to Fvwm-2 and played with the RedmondXP theme, and things were fine... But I'd been using the Pinball theme with Firebird and Thunderbird, and wanted something more "depraved", more Windosey... Well, lo-and-behold, an hour ago I found Chris Cook's Luna Blue theme for Firebird! I installed it, and was wowed. I immediately wrote Chris, asking if he had any plans to port it to Thunderbird, and within a few minutes he'd replied, telling me about your port.

Thumbs-up!

David Collantes -

When you have more than one IMAP account, the Account icon (the one that looks like a network folder) reverts back to the original icon on the original Thunderbird theme.

David Collantes -

Actually, it just happens when you are using SSL IMAP, the icon should show with a small lock, but since the theme does not have such icon, the old one (from the original theme) will show. Any chance that get corrected, Steven? I love your theme!

Scott -

HI,

Just installed the luna theme and itss great execpt the toolbar icons dont work. I ahve all the icons in the folder - just not on the toolbar - they are the original. I am using the latestnightly built if Thunderbird if that helps.

Scott

Greg -

If I might be so bold, I'd like to make an observation of this otherwise fantastic theme. Would it be possible to change the "Stop the current transfer" button to a stop sign or something OTHER than a red "X"? Having two icons that prominently display a red "X" is confusing. It's completely unintuitive that it should be "delete" in one place and "stop current operation" in another.

David Mytton -

I have the same problem as Scott [12:40 PM October 12, 2003] - the main toolbar has the default icons :(

John Simmons -

I think You'll find that it uses the default icons because you have 'small icons' option checked for your taskbar... At least that's what happened to me.

David Mytton -

Yes, that fixed it.

David Schontzler -

Wow... good start. Unfortunately, I'm sticking with the original theme since it obeys system colors. The Luna Firebird theme does the same... any chance of making a version of this theme that does the same?

Kiran Parmar -

Any chance of updating this skin for Thunderbird 0.4?

Steven Garrity -

Kiran - yup, a 0.4 compatible release is coming soon.

Steven Garrity -

UPDATE: A new version of this theme has been released. See
Luna Blue Theme (v0.2) for Mozilla Thunderbird Update
for details.

Jonathan B. Horen -

Shalom, Steven!

Well, they've gone and done it -- Thunderbird-0.7 has been released. I just downloaded-and-installed it and, sure enough, your Luna Blue theme for Thunderbird (lunabluethunderbird_0_2.jar) doesn't work with it.

Oh, it seems to install -- no crashing or error message(s) -- but, like its sibling theme for Firefox (luna-blue_0.3.3a.jar, by Chris Cook), it just won't appear on the theme list, following that "install".

I know you wrote last December that you weren't planning to take this theme much further... a "niche theme", you called it. Nevertheless, would you consider allowing your definition of "much further" to include this new Thunderbird-0.7 release?

I wrote Chris Cook yesterday about the same problem with his theme, vis-a-vis the new Firefox-0.9 release, and he replied that he's working on it. Won't you please do the same?

I know that I speak for a large group of self-confessed "niche theme" users, when I say that your Luna Blue theme for Thunderbird is perhaps the single most important theme available -- and will continue to be so for a long, long time. As has been written/said many times before, your and Chris's Luna Blue themes, giving the Outlook and IE look-and-feel to these two great Open Source products, are what make it possible for so many "underpriviliged" users to wean themselves from Micro$oft products and make the transition (at the desktop level) to Linux, while remaining as close to 100% productivity as possible.

Thank you, in advance, for at least considering this request.

All the best!

Jonathan B. Horen -

Chris Cook just released Luna Blue v0.4a for Firefox-0.9. Just a heads-up.

GonnaBugYouEveryDay -

please update for thunder.7.x

thank you.

GonnaBugYouEveryDay -

sorry missed a couple days...

please update for thunderbird 7x
thank you

OkSoMaybeOnlyEveryOtherDay -

please update for thunderbird 7x

thank you