Dust

Dust is a concept for a new, refreshing look for Ubuntu. The idea was to take the defining aesthetic elements of Ubuntu and remix it into something clean, modern, functional, and unique.

The theme is currently being worked on by Rico Sta. Cruz, Kido Mariano, and James Schriver.

Download

How to install: Download the file above, and drag it to the appearance dialog (System -> Preferences -> Appearance). After this is done, select "Dust" from the themes list. Alternatively, untar the package to your ~/.themes folder.

Dust requires murrine 0.91, available in Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid) and newer. If you are using an older version, try the 0.3 series, which only requires clearlooks: Download now

Dust uses light toolbars by default except on certain applications. If you would like the dark toolbars back for all apps, see the extras package.

Firefox theme

How to install: Click the link above. After being prompted with a yellow box about preventing software from being installed, click on "Allow." Follow the instructions afterwards.

Extras

These are extra variations of Dust. Note that these are not supported and may be less stable than the main theme. Consider these as unsupported preview releases. Includes:

• Dust Sand - Lighter, Slightly-metallic version (work in progress)

• Dust Burnt - A version of Dust where all apps use dark toolbars (basically like 0.1)

• Dust Borderless - A version of the Dust window borders theme with a thin frame, like 0.4 or older.

Old versions

You can find old releases here:

• GTK releases archive

• Firefox release archive

Unofficial versions

These are updates by people other than the Dust team. If you would like to contribute your own edits, you can do so here. Attach your own files, but please don't overwrite the 'official' releases.

• Dust Sand XFWM4

  • This is the XFWM4 version of the Dust Sand window border

• Dust-20080920-valentin-steinwandter.tar.gz

  • More grey-ish neutral color scheme (Edited by valentin-steinwandter)

• Dust-brighter.tar.gz

  • A slightly less dark version

• Dust Cold

  • Colder color scheme for Dust and Dustfox (Edited by Taylor "Ripps" L-Wren)

• dustfox-0.1.20081226.xpi

  • Updated DustFox for Firefox 3.1 (Edited by Taylor "Ripps" L-Wren

• Dusty XFWM mod

  • Added an XFWM complete theme based on Dusty (an XFWM theme by calmario) (Edited by Steve Dodier)

• Darker Dust Sand

  • the darker version of the Dust Sand with a few added effects... for Gnome (--mac_v)

• Dust Theme for Google Chrome (TM)

  Chromium theme 0.3.2 Install now

  • A theme for Google Chrome / Chromium browser to mimic the Dust theme. Note the name has been changed to please the lawyers. (Joel Berger)

Screenshots

Note that some of these screenshots may be outdated.

Concept

Here are some guidelines I followed while making this:

• No custom software. It has to use an established GTK engine. This one is made with the Aurora GTK engine in mind, which sports a very polished look.

• Few custom icons. It was made with the Tango iconset in mind.

• It's visually neutral. The window decorations are not orange or brown — they’re predominantly dark gray. This is good so that when you’re viewing images or working on visual things, the colors of the decorations don’t influence your perception of the content. I think this is a strong point of OSX. Let the wallpaper define the look, not the window controls.

• It's dark, to be similar to the current Ibex theme.

• It uses the default two-panel configuration of GNOME. Not only is it proven functional, but people have been used to this and it would be awful to break their expectations. No AWN docks or anything fancy.

Original mockup

Old concept updates

Update (Sept 1): Icon concept

Other stuff to try

• Bordered windows
  Having trouble resizing? If you would like a border around your windows to ease resizing, get the extras package. Go to your theme's settings (Under System -> Preferences -> Appearance -> Customize) and under the "Window Border" tab, select "Dust Bordered."

• Round Firefox tabs
  Use the Stylish extension and load this: http://userstyles.org/styles/10883

• Transparent panel
  Try setting your panel background (right click at panel -> Properties -> Background -> Background image) to ~/.themes/Dust/panel-background.png.

• Compiz decorator settings
  If you're using Compiz and you find the titlebar transparency weird, you can try running the script Dust_compiz_settings.sh (included in the download) to fix.

Wallpapers

Change log

• Dust - September 22

  • Repackaged to prevent errors
  • Made borderless default
  • Moved the old metacity decorations to a new "Dust Bordered" variant
  • Fix for SWT toolbars

• Dust - September 21

  • Add changes by sz07:
    • Clearlooks buttons
    • Smaller tabs
    • More visible insensitive text
    • More visible check boxes and radio buttons
  • Slightly less glossy scrollbar
  • Fixed QGtkStyle menus

• Dust - September 20

  • Code cleanup
  • Make selected menu items borderless (murrine)

  • Updated: repackaged to prevent tar.gz errors -- rico-ambiescent 2008-09-20 17:36:20

• Dust - September 17

  • Aurora version and pixmaps are back
  • Sleeker menu/toolbar gradients
  • Slightly darker color scheme
  • New scrollbar look
  • Reverted to left-aligned titlebar text

• Dust - September 16

  • Flat style; all pixmaps dropped
  • Aurora theme dropped
  • Colorised scrollbar, darker scrollbar trough
  • (Waiting for Rico's tweaks, if any. Consider this a preliminary version. -Kido)

• Dust - September 14

  • Fix for Rhythmbox
  • Code cleanup
  • Added prelight for scales
  • Added handlebox image
  • Added more obvious menu item gradient

• Dust - September 13

  • Fixed insensitive text contrast
  • Centered metacity titlebar (in consideration of RTL text)
  • Added scrollbar drag handles, lighter background
  • More borderless theme changes: resize handles are more apparent (RSC)
  • Borderless theme changes
  • Removed some gloss
  • Added all previous changes to Aurora theme

• Dust - September 10

  • Updated to a light-colored statusbar (fixes many issues in many apps)
  • Minor metacity aesthetic fixes (titlebar gradient looks less 'puffy')

• Dust - September 9

  • Min-max-close buttons update (with prelight)
  • Added subtle titlebar gradient
  • A few GTK changes

• Dust - September 8

  • Consolidated both Aurora and Murrine versions into one package
  • Added a borderless style
  • Fixed toolbar handles a little
  • Aesthetic improvements to menus and toolbars
  • New selected item color

• Dust (Murrine SVN) - September 7

  • Incorporates and cleans up changes from the previous version

• Dust (Murrine SVN) - September 1

  • New color scheme, titlebar buttons alignment fix, and other fixes)

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