GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 423314
gnome-theme-manager and gnome-background-properties integration
Last modified: 2007-07-23 21:36:21 UTC
As I see it, the wallpaper is a part of the desktop theme. Is there a good reason not to have the background manager integrated into the theme manager, as just one more tab? Please take a look at these: http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/376/wallpapertv0.png http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/9779/wallpaper2oq7.png Those two mockups show how the thing should ideally look like. The desktop colour chooser is moved from the "background" tab to the "colours" tab, wich A) makes more sense IMO, and B) saves space in the wallpaper tab and makes it less cluttered, while takes some space in the almost empty colours tab. Other information:
I don't agree that the wallpaper is part of the desktop theme. Maybe I'm growing old and conservative, but I never change my desktop theme, using whatever is provided; I want something sane and bland. I don't want to have to think about the theme; I want it to just work. I haven't run the theme browser in a long time. I do change my wallpaper every month or so, generally using a photo that I've taken. Moving it into the theme browser would require me to deal with themes and I'd rather not deal with that additional complexity. My workflow involves working on multiple, separate projects, and I make use of workspaces to keep windows relating to those different projects separate, for when I mentally switch tasks. I'd much prefer to be able to assign different wallpapers to each workspace, to make them easier to tell apart - and not introduce a coupling between the theme and the wallpaper.
"I don't agree that the wallpaper is part of the desktop theme". Well, my view on it is that anything that lets you change greatly the way your desktop looks is part of the desktop theme. Icons, for example, are not more closely related to the window decoration than they are to the background image. But of course if you don't agree there's no way I can prove you wrong. When you refer to "additional complexity", what do you mean? I don't think you should need to launch the gnome theme manager and click on details button to bring up the dialog, if that's what you mean. I'm suggesting that right-clicking the desktop and clicking "change background image" calls this up: http://img408.imageshack.us/img408/376/wallpapertv0.png That is, the theme details window with the wallpaper tab active. Would this be OK with you? Would it be feasible at all?
I'm with Dave here. I rarely if ever change my theme, but I regularly update my background. There's no need to clutter the theme manager with this, especially now that the cursor themes are moving over there as well.
I think you mean, there's no need to clutter the background prefs with themes. :) But really, we do need a single "Appearance" capplet. However, just cramming everything into one program in multiple tabs, isn't the solution. We need a proper design that actually takes usability into account. (In reply to comment #3) > I'm with Dave here. I rarely if ever change my theme, but I regularly update my > background. There's no need to clutter the theme manager with this, especially > now that the cursor themes are moving over there as well. >
Appearance is in 2.19 now. Closing...