Flavours2

We should all write to Apple and complain at them for being such @$$es. Back in the OS 9 days they used to allow developers to do marvelous things with the UI of Mac OS. Now, they keep locking everything down because they think their design is the best design and no one else can do better. If they let people develop themes for both Mac OS and iOS everyone would be a lot happier and we might even get more Android people coming to iOS.

As I noted in a different reply to someone, I suspect Ives has a very closed mind on the matter. I intend to write to tcook@apple.com

maybe if we get Taylor Swift to bitch about it Apple will change it's mind ;)

I miss the days when we had Kaleidoscope to change the look of the OS.

Sorry to disappoint, but the developers have made clear that this is the end of the line.

I hope, at least, that they port more of the old themes. To each their own, but I can't say I like most of these. There were a number of others that I'd like to see. I wonder if they can make a converter or something.

And you're right about Apple needing to support theming, although I doubt we'll see it. I upgraded to Yosemite mostly out of need but hate the UI. It's just plain ugly. I'll be purchasing Flavours lite because, even with only a few themes I like, it's still a substantial improvement.

there are 128 themes packaged with Flavours 2 Lite, so I expect you should be able to find something to your liking. Flavours will only work with Yosemite and will not work with El Cap, so enjoy it until later this year when El Cap is released.

Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!

From what I've read, it will be possible for users to disable the "rootless" feature in 10.11 via booting into the recovery mode and disabling the feature. I wonder if Flavours will work with it as such. It's probably a minor pain to do, and no doubt inexperienced users probably shouldn't mess with it. But I'd be willing to do it if it meant being able to theme. It's a pity the developers are abandoning their work, although I do understand that this hasn't been profitable for them. Perhaps they'll be willing to open source the project. One can hope.

agreed - I was unaware of the potential to sidestep 'rootless'. Big issue for me as I modify mu GUI with Flavours, cDock, FinderPop, Bartender, Lidpop etc etc and I worru how many of these apps and utilities will be allowed under El Cap.

No, it won't work. I contacted the developer. He said they'd (yet again) have to spend an inordinate amount of time getting up to speed for 10.11. If we try the current (and last) version in 10.11, we'll get weird results. I'm still going to try it, but there's just plain going to be a point of no return.

At least in terms of theming, I think the better route is to write directly to Mr. Cook. I seriously doubt Mr. Ives wants to hear anything other than what comes out of his own mouth, even though I think his design strategy is for s***. I have a doctorate in instructional design, and any 101 course will teach you the critical value of color coding to accomplish useful results.

Anyway, I digress. The way I see it, it was Mr. Jobs who said "no theming"; but it was also Mr. Jobs who told Mr. Cook not to try to do "what Steve would want." As such, maybe he'll be open to new ideas.

I should think, at least, that Apple should hire the Flavours developers. It's not as if they don't know what they're doing. They did what no one else could.

Certainly, Apple would not want garish looking themes; that makes sense. But certainly a middle ground must be possible to allow for some expression. The way my Yosemite-driven laptop looks right now, I might as well just go back and use a Mac SE from 1987. Sad. I cling to the hope that "this, too, shall pass."

garish, really? half of the themes flavours has available are vastly more garish than even 10.0/10.1/10.2 ever was. the trend has been towards more neutral tones, lower contrast, and less color for five years now. "garish" isn't even close to 2015 window chrome and decorations.

inigomontoya.gif

The problem is that themes are code. Letting foreign code run at the lowest system levels is an invitation to malware that sends our information to our enemies or the NSA. This is why even Apple is trying to block the root from modifying system files.

At this point, I'm willing to support Apple's greed and pay to have customizing options: they should buy Flavours, incorporate it into El Capitan any way they think is secure and done their way, sell it to us as an add-on via the AppStore, and even sell us themes afterwards. Hire renowned GUI artists to commission premium themes, and sell them to us! See the business opportunity here Apple? If you're so afraid of security flaws or malicious code, control the damn thing 100% and just sell it!