Hi all,

I hope some current Amiga users can post the following images for a 'project' I am currently working on. I need to see some genuine eye-candy Amiga GUI themes that a non-Amiga user or ex-Amiga would find appealing; for want of a better word.

1. Tell me the name of the skin/theme that you are using when adding a comment to each image here on Amigans. Include a link OS4Depot (or wherever it maybe found), I am not interested in pre-OS4 themes. Please add your three images to the Backdrops category. Finally clearly title each image you submit with the prefix THEMES-JUN10: so I can find them easily.

2. POST FIRST IMAGE showing Timberwolf as the only program running WITHOUT AmiDock visible; ie. Timberwolf covering over it. The menu bar of Timberwolf should be active and not greyed out/inactive.

3. POST SECOND IMAGE showing Timberwolf as the only program running WITH AmiDock underneath the Timberwolf window. The menu bar of Timberwolf should be active and not greyed out/inactive.

4. Website shown in Timberwolf can be just anything with the following exceptions: Do not show Amiga, Mac OS, Linus, OSNews or god-forbid M$ forums, Geek Sites or any other computer-related sites. Feel free to show any 'cool' sites like FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube or whatever the younger generation are into these days. Please ensure the chosen website has displayed correctly on-screen.

5. Any icons in the AmiDock should not look like this: http://www.amigans.net/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=298. I love this theme so would like to see it, but please ensure all icons that are visible in your AmiDock ooze quality and do not remind of the past. Sorry RibDevil!

6. This rule applies mostly to the AmiDock. The AmiDock should not include graphics that have been clearly ripped from other OSes like Hard Drive images or Mac OS X application images etc.

7. Please resist the urge to 'photoshop' any images.

8. POST THIRD IMAGE, I'd like people to upload their workbench background. The plain-vanilla jpg or png or whatever. No icons overlapping, the actual image itself. Simple rules on this one, it must be totally Amiga, it must absolutely, positively and without question include the Boing-Ball on it. It can be seasonal, comic or relevant to the here and now. Please no 'history of Amiga backgrounds' or nostalgic images.

9. For those who are not willing to post the first or second images, please upload your background.

In summary, post two images of your workbench theme with Timberwolf running with AmiDock visible on the first image and not visible on the other. Tell me what theme this is and a link to where it can be downloaded. Finally upload your plain background image that you use everyday (or a selection!) without the OS sitting on top; the plain image untouched.

Thanks in advance to everyone and anybody who chooses to take part and helps me with my project. Hoping with your help it may come to something.

Thanks for reading. Now get busy!

@kas1e

All though not strictly a pixel paint package - I have mentioned InkScape elsewhere Kas1e if your up for that challenge, but I believe there are few dependancies (more sigh) that need to be in os4 first. Although maybe worthwhile getting the ground work in place.

So many dependancies missing from os4, Trevor and his team sure got a busy year ahead of them.

@Daniel

Yeah sure all them things are valid and should be given more priority, grey is fine, but a darker grey would be more appropriate to bring the blue and white text more into focus and stand off from the background; eg. listing files in a folder as a list.

So much for Open-source... not being able to use the name and any associated artwork surely goes against the principles and spirit of the Open-source community. I can certainly understand Mozilla wanting 'some' control, but at the same time it seems a little heavy handed given the above. Download links to Debian and Amiga versions should be included on Mozilla.org as I am pretty sure that developers of both do mean to port as close as possible to the original only changing the necessary code to get it working natively on said platform.

Talking of Open-source, I predict that Flash will become Open-source in the next 1-2 years, Adobe will have to shift their ethos toward HTML5 if they are to survive. in the Internet world. I don't know if anyone has read Steve Jobs statement about Flash, but I agree with 99% of what he had to say. Its ludicrous that their key products have only just adopted Apple's style interface guidelines.

Flash as always been a resource-hog, especially on Apple technology, only just adding limited 3D acceleration support after all this time. Who really wants a plug-in that zaps so much processor time?

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Key point:

There is no such thing as bad publicity, use the FireFox brand in its entirety to get as much publicity about the Amiga release and its future potential as a viable platform. When you hear from the Mozilla Foundation pretend to fight against their judgements for a couple of weeks with the intention to revert to Timberwolf anyway.

Zero risk, 100% reward, all successful businesses pull such stunts... get people talking about the platform by pulling of stunts as such as these.

Just look at the Eurovision Song Contest this year, that Flash Mob dance at the end of the show was inspired directly from T-Mobile's TV advertisements in the UK - great publicity for a company doing something a little bit different to the norm.

@Daniel

Cools look pretty good. I love SimCity and Settlers type games, I think they got coined as 'God' games when Populous came out - the birth of a new genre.

Talking of games, I've been playing Captive a lot recently through E-UAE - still a great playable game even 20 years later.

I remember owning Liberation on the CD32 and thinking 'this is so fail'. The sequel was just too ambitious and I never knew exactly where I was to go and what I was to. I think the best game I can recall playing on the CD32 was Microcosm it was just so unique even though I knew it was just simply a video playing with sprites on top - it did feel pretty special at the time.

Of course after Commodore's demise in 1994, '95 saw the release of Winblows 95 and that electronic giant that was best known for making Walkmans and Hi-Fi systems came from absolutely nowhere and just dominated the console market to this very day.

Ah a bit of a nostaligic moment there. ;-;

I digress back to the point I was trying to make.

I would love to see a modern remake of Captive or even Dungeon master - not more of this Doom clone crap which requires no strategy.

@Mikey_C

I'll be there saturday, can't wait to look around Bletchley Park, I don't even know what is open and what is closed. I should read their web site and see what the place has to offer.

My reason for going is to see what this all new singing dancing X1000 looks and performs like.

Although I hardly know any names here it will be good to meet some of you guys.

See ya next week!

@TrevorDick

Yeah seriously you might as well considering the momentum is building.

@afxgroup

True, but check out the graphics on http://lincity-ng.berlios.de/wiki/index.php/Main_Page .... completely different game. Looks wicked... so which is the Amiga version representative of? The 80s game of the 00s game? Who knows.

Hi all,

First off, thanks to everyone posting their great software on OS4 Depot - even though I am not playing any of it I certainly may do in not so near future.

But I have something that really does irk me..... when it comes to submitting screenshots people post 1 or just don't bother - how does this inspire new users to get interested in what Amiga has to offer?

So all I ask is that developers of both games (and ports) and applications spend a little more time and show as many as possible of the graphics/user interface.

Whilst trawling through the games section there I found a game called LinCity - hmmm 120Mb+ download; the only scrap of information that told me it was modern and worth investigating further. So I clicked through... not one screenshot! Oh sure, give me a link to the official game developer web site - wow this game looks great and I didn't think there was modern games of that quality on the Amiga in 2010. But a link to a official game developer website just isn't enough because a) most computer users these days don't wanna click, link after link after link and b) by not including any screenshots you are not showcasing your hours, days and weeks of programming efforts and people don't download something just because its called MegaDeathUltimateBestGameEver2.0.lha.

Just a rant, but I think my point is valid.

On a lighter note, I often frequent 'the other two forums' I must say this is the best as it is very rare to see negative posters in fact the opposite is true so many positive posters with well-thought out constructive advice and criticism. Also its great to witness an explosion of interest in FireFox.. oops Timberwolf with the number of bug reports flooding in - sure gonna keep the Freiden brothers busy for months to come.

As you were.

@klesterjr

All OS4.1 windows should like that by default, but as a non-amiga usersince '97 I bet they are still that ugly and dull blue/grey. :(

Edit: To be fair I know people can customise to hell and back and I've son tons of different screenies showing what can be customised - but a great looking boing-inspired window colour arrangement should come as standard with great png icons with all the eye-candy set to maximum on first run. :D

@TrevorDick

Free goodies... excellent hope you have some bertie bassetts.

@trixie

Loved to get an idea how many people are expected at Bletchley Park for the weekend. Personally I am off on Saturday morning to see what all the fuss is about; decided to bring the old-man along as a birthday present. Plus he can drive home lol

Reminds me, I should probably buy a pair of tickets online seen as cheaper that way.

P.S. I wonder if Trevor or AmigaKit is planning to bring along some pinbadges that we can purr-chase on the day.

@yoodoo2

I wasn't thinking of my own requirements, but more about requirements of the platform - a solid vector-based application is certainly up their with there must-haves.

@Mrodfr

Cool, I'll have a read through in a mo.

2 machines? Wouldn't 20 or 200 be more realistic?

Man I wish I could win the EuroMillions, I'd buy you 2000 in a heartbeat... hmmm I don't even play the lottery. haha.

I am sure many on here would do the same... or at least Helgis would hehe.

So how do people feel about this Topic's title now that Timberwolf Alpha 1 has been released?

As a non-developer how easy is this to port to AmigaOS?

http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/CompilingInkscape

Apparently it should compile right out the box!

But I am not that naive, I am sure there is much more involved. I can see from using and installing the Mac OS X version at work that it relies on the X11 platform - I think in Amiga-land this is called AmiCygnix?

I've seen kas1e's lodepaint port on os4depot in screen shots only and it seems ideal for editing bitmap graphics (although clearly not Photoshop if looks-alone can tell), but does the Amiga have a vector-based application based on the SVG format?

I think the fact it uses Cairo for rendering graphics is a step-closer in bringing a port more smoothly.

Would kas1e or any other individual(s) consider such a port?

I 2nd that.

dupe

@Daniel

Thats more than Safari 4.0.5 does... just see first frame of video then black screen... lol class

@KimmoK

Exactly.

Its just a case of people porting to Amiga, X1000 hardware looks like being up there with the best.

As far as I am concerned hardware has been at a point now for several years where the average user just doesn't need any more RAM or CPU.

Everything that is imaginable can be done nowadays on the hardware we (computing as a whole) currently have available.

The computer age (both hardware and software) has ran its course.

In the words of Karl Pilkington: "We've invented most of the stuff that we need and now we're just messing about."