• Registered: 2009-01-06
  • Posts: 12

Topic: First impressions // ugly Firefox

Just installed #! after a recommendation from a colleague (who also is on the forums).

I -really- like the distro. As soon as I ran the live CD, I saw the keyboard shortcuts and thought "this is the one for me", hit "install", and 30 minutes later (installing from a USB key onto an SSD) had a nicely working system. I then needed to run the tweaks required for the Acer Aspire One from https://help.ubuntu.com/community/AspireOne110L (indeed, edited one of them to assist a #! user to find Synaptic, which is not in the same place as Ubuntu).

I'm a particular fan of the inclusion of Gwibber (what a nice thing); I was concerned about not having Gnome but think that OpenBox is really rather splendid, and it's rather nicer for a smaller screen. And all keyboard operated. Nice.

The only negative I have is the look/feel of Firefox, where you have bright white pages, but dark dropdowns/checkboxes: Gmail looks very odd indeed (and no, I don't use any mail applications otherwise). I'd personally like a way of overriding the dark theme (which is otherwise rather nice) within Firefox; which I'm sure is possible. Anyone know how to do it?

While I don't know how to do it, what would be -really- nice is a little script to run all the little tweaks that the Acer Aspire One requires. But then, that's probably more a Ubuntu conversation, and I'm sure 9.04 will fix all that. Maybe.

Anyway, hope all that is interesting and useful to you. Nice work.

  • &ru
  • Member
  • Offline
  • From: Widnes, England
  • Registered: 2008-12-27
  • Posts: 21

Re: First impressions // ugly Firefox

James Cridland wrote:

I'd personally like a way of overriding the dark theme (which is otherwise rather nice) within Firefox; which I'm sure is possible. Anyone know how to do it?

hi, i'm new here and to #! but as long as you're running the vanilla install of #! it should just be a case of right clicking on your desktop to bring up the main menu and following this path:

Main Menu > Preferences > User Interface Settings

this will change the colour and look of stuff like scrollbars and button widgets and so on.

after you've changed that, you may want to change the Window Decoration (some like to call this a theme)
follow:

Main Menu > Preferences > OpenBox Config > GUI Config Tool

and here you'll be able to change the Window Decoration to suit the colour scheme

hope this helps

Asus EeePC 1000HE, #!9.04.01, Windows XP
home-built "euclid" Intel Core2 Duo E8400, Windows XP, Windows Vista
Android Dev Phone 1
Psion netBook

&ru's Website

  • From: Lincoln, UK
  • Registered: 2008-11-20
  • Posts: 4,242

Re: First impressions // ugly Firefox

James Cridland wrote:

The only negative I have is the look/feel of Firefox, where you have bright white pages, but dark dropdowns/checkboxes: Gmail looks very odd indeed (and no, I don't use any mail applications otherwise). I'd personally like a way of overriding the dark theme (which is otherwise rather nice) within Firefox; which I'm sure is possible. Anyone know how to do it?

Hello James smile

The issues you are describing are an unfortunate side effect of using a dark theme. I will look into seeing if a solution can be found. Off the top of my head, maybe a custom style sheet can be applied to all sites which would change the look and feel of form elements which have otherwise not been styled by the site's web designer? Hmm, I will give it some thought.

Thank you for your feedback, it is appreciated.

P.S. Welcome to the forums!

My website | Follow me on Twitter | CrunchBang on DistroWatch

corenominal's Website

  • &ru
  • Member
  • Offline
  • From: Widnes, England
  • Registered: 2008-12-27
  • Posts: 21

Re: First impressions // ugly Firefox

corenominal wrote:

The issues you are describing are an unfortunate side effect of using a dark theme. I will look into seeing if a solution can be found.

we need to rally some support in getting all web developers to stop making sites that are light-theme centric!

wink

Asus EeePC 1000HE, #!9.04.01, Windows XP
home-built "euclid" Intel Core2 Duo E8400, Windows XP, Windows Vista
Android Dev Phone 1
Psion netBook

&ru's Website

  • From: Cardiff, UK
  • Registered: 2008-12-07
  • Posts: 226

Re: First impressions // ugly Firefox

Hi James. Glad you're liking it so far. smile

I agree with you entirely. Most of the apps look okay, but Firefox is particularly ugly. Especially the inline UI elements, as you noted.

I've changed away from the default themes. For OpenBox I liked the Carbon theme - dark, but rich. For GTK I'm currently using TropicBomb, but there are plenty of other sililar light. I wanted to stick with a dark theme, but there are too many comprises, IMO. sad

foomandoonian's tumblelog & twitter

Foomandoonian's Website

  • From: Lincoln, UK
  • Registered: 2008-11-20
  • Posts: 4,242

Re: First impressions // ugly Firefox

&ru wrote:
corenominal wrote:

The issues you are describing are an unfortunate side effect of using a dark theme. I will look into seeing if a solution can be found.

we need to rally some support in getting all web developers to stop making sites that are light-theme centric!

wink

I was going to say something to that effect, but I got lambasted the last time I did. lol

My website | Follow me on Twitter | CrunchBang on DistroWatch

corenominal's Website

  • From: California, USA
  • Registered: 2008-11-29
  • Posts: 8,647

Re: First impressions // ugly Firefox

The only thing I dont like about the CrunchBang theme with Firefox is how the location bar looks.

The site identity button on the right is black instead of white for normal sites. Also the dropdown arrow is square and the color is flat. I saw a picture of Firefox on CrunchBang 8.04 and the dropdown arrow looked nicer:

http://crunchbang.org/images/crunchbang … h-real.png

Note: ** Please read before posting **

BTW if you wish to contact me, send me an e-mail instead of a PM.
  • Registered: 2008-11-25
  • Posts: 4,363

Re: First impressions // ugly Firefox

Hello James and welcome to the forums smile I was never a dark theme user until crunchbang. Somehow it just seems to fit and now I wouldn't use anything else.

  • Registered: 2009-01-06
  • Posts: 12

Re: First impressions // ugly Firefox

I'll fiddle with a custom theme. But I'm afraid I've switched theme to a lighter one. I liked the dark theme. But I like websites looking halfway like you'd expect them to... sad

J

  • seth
  • #! CrunchBanger
  • Offline
  • From: thefilthynorthwest
  • Registered: 2008-11-30
  • Posts: 106

Re: First impressions // ugly Firefox

Yo, chill. Just make a stylesheet. I know it's been done cause i saw it on the internet somewhere.

lots of user-made dark themes come with firefox themes/patches to change the controls.

[ portfolio/wallpapers ] [ last.fm ]
  • Registered: 2009-01-07
  • Posts: 2

Re: First impressions // ugly Firefox

You can make persistent/per-site changes by editing userContent.css:

http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html

You may need to brush up on your CSS:

http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html