Lets forget the other aspects of the desktop... but they don't even give you the ability to change the colours of the themes (title bars, buttons, fonts, etc) for instance because some core developers seems to believe that if you're an "advanced user" or use the computer for a single "major" purpose, other than doing actually nothing productive but playing with it, then you won't be needing those type of "options".
In a way this is true. For instance, I remember a time not that long ago when I was quite obsessed with tweaking themes and stuff. I wanted to make my desktop look absolutely beautiful and perfect thus I spent countless hours for doing so. And other than that... all I did at that time with my GNU/Linux (well I had Widows as well) Laptop was watching videos and listening to music.
Interestingly I had an another friend who primarily used his computer to use a certain application (it was a 3D graphic rendering app I think), it was basically the only program that he used (almost), I went to see him every weekend and even after several months he had the "official" theme that came with the OS and he haven't even changed a single thing!.
So in a way this is not wrong because if you're concentrating and doing something "productive" using your PC then you'll have lesser needs to think about how cool you can make the desktop and windows look, etc.
But the point is that everyone is different so are their needs and implementing something as small as giving the users the ability to change colours... I mean come one Gnome, be reasonable!. I really don't like this approach of Gnome developers of "trying to figure-out everything for the users" all by themselves and to think that it makes them unique or something like that. So please try to be reasonable.
Anyhow back to the post. Sorry about the rambling... but it kinda slipped out :).
Orta is actually a beautiful theme-suite (I guess you can call it like that) and unlike with many other themes... what I like about it that, it has an another application called "Orta Settings Manager" which basically lets you change a lot of it options such as...
*. Change window gradients.
*. Switch between tab styles (dark and light colours combinations).
*. Change expanders (square, arrows, etc).
*. Change scrollbar size.
*. Built in few Nautilus menubar styles (breadcrumbs, Nautilus Elementary type styles, etc).
 |
| The "settings manager" window... |
*. Different types of menus.
*. Change panel colour (personal favourite :D).
And few other application related "fixes" for enhancing the GTK graphic rendering are the main features. So, a big thank to SkiesOfAzel the developer of this amazingly beautiful theme.
But as said, no manual colour selection is available (other than the built in ones) but the controllability and the features makes you wonder how cool Gnome will look if the developers were kind enough to include a "decent" theme manager by default :/.
Anyhow, you can install Orta-theme in Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal and 10.10 by using their official PPA channel. To do that, simple open your GNU/Linux Terminal and enter the below command.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nikount/orta-desktopIf you encounter any errors saying some files are missing, etc while doing the "apt-get update" ... just ignore it... it works just fine on my Ubuntu 11.04 Laptop.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install orta-theme
It's made to integrate quite nicely with the Faenza Icon theme which is not necessary... but if you want the maximum "experience" ;-), then you can install it by using the below command as well.
sudo apt-add-repository ppa:tiheum/equinoxSometimes the changes that you made via the "Orta settings manager" (accessed via: "System" -> " Preference") may not be applied unless you restart the PC or change the theme to a different one and then re-change it to Orta. Enjoy!.
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install faenza-icon-theme
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