Themes/Skins

[Thomas Pfeiffer]

Hi all,
I'm pretty sure this topic has already been discussed quite a few times among 
the Amarok team, but since it hasn't been on the mailing list since I joined 
it and considering some recent discussions, I'd like to bring it up again.
Wouldn't it make sense to allow users to choose between different Amarok 
themes or skins? We've seen many very nice, stylish and distinguished 
approaches at slying the Amarok UI recently. The problem with many of them 
was: They were _too_ stylish and distinguished to be sure that no user would 
hate them. I have been among those that warned about the danger of alienating 
users with those designs. On the other hand, I think it would be really bad 
let all those great ideas go to waste. 
The feature of skins or themes is especially popular among music (and other 
media) players, and not without reason: Listening to and owning music has a 
whole lot to do with identity. So for many people the tool they use for 
listening to music becomes part of their identity as well. And for that reason 
they want it's look to fit "their style" as well. 
No I'm not talking about skins like those in Winamp 5 which can really 
completely turn it's appearance upside down. I think Amarok should always look 
like Amarok. but things like background colors / gradients / images or 
buttons/icons can be changed without giving up Amarok's visual identity. Take 
Plasma and kwin as an example. Users can change colors, transparency, 
backgrounds, icons, yet it still looks like KDE 4. And imo the ability to 
change all those things in KDE calls for being able to tweak (not completely 
change!) Amarok's appearance as well: Amarok might look good with default KDE 
settings, but what if I change colors, themes, icons? The hard-coded CV colors 
are only one example where Amarok suddenly isn't in line with my desktop 
anymore as soon as I change it's colors. 
Thomas Lübking initially came up with his rather radical changes to buttons 
when trying to get it in line with Bespin iirc, so what about other themes? 
I'm pretty sure users what want Amarok to fit with them as well.

So what do you think? Might it be possible to find a compromise allowing users 
to adapt Amarok to their style or their desktop without giving up on Amarok's 
visual brand?

Regards,
Thomas