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Tango project aims to clean up the desktop

Submitted by stro on Mon, 2005-12-05 00:41. Gnome Art
Gnome Art

One obstacle for Linux to overcome on the desktop is the lack of a consistent visual interface. While Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X offer users and developers consistent themes, Linux supports a plethora of dissimilar desktop environments and window managers. The Tango Desktop Project is working to change that.

The Tango project is an effort to establish high-usability visual themes for Linux desktops that function consistently across multiple desktop environments. Tango evolved from private discussions between Novell's Jakub Steiner and Mozilla Visual Identity Team lead Steven Garrity. The project went public at the Boston GNOME Summit in October. Project participants are working on specifications for cross-environment themes and a fully compatible theme they hope will be adopted by vendors.

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This isn't a "theme

Submitted by Anonymous George on Mon, 2005-12-05 10:30.

This isn't a "theme unification" project. The main thrust of Tango is working out (1) an icon-naming specification that all themes can implement and all desktop environments can look for, and (2) establish a common-metaphor guide, to both help icon themers keep from getting stuck and -- in the long run -- help sort out which visual metaphors are the least culturally-bound and most helpful.

the fact that they are producing an actual theme is just part of the process they are using to test out & work on the specs, to practice what they preach, and provide at least one example of how a theme implements the ideas.

A lot of the ideas may be useful to any themer (like the twin-line outline thing), but no one has any obligation to use their theme or their color schemes or anything. Along with the theme itself, they are producing a style guide that explains what they're adhered to, but that is for *third-party* icon makers, so that if you write a new app, you can see how the Tango icons are designed, and make an icon for your app that works well with it. And that, frankly, is a great idea that all theme makers should consider doing when they release a theme.

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