Theme Considerations

Here are my preferences:

I like my desktop to be bright and stimulating. I love a certain kind of blueish gray (or grayish blue as you like). The RGBs are #6B73A9.

I also like the aluminium decoration of the mac. It's clear, its clean and it does not distract from the task at hand. So probably brushed metal look will be nice.

I am not one to have a wild wallpaper desktop image. I prefer calm and quite abstract patterns. I get a kick out of mathematically motivated images.

Lets translate this into requirements:

• Windows are white or very light gray
• Borders are medium gray
• Menus and tool bars are same medium gray
  
• No separation lines between window title, menu bar and tool bars
• Windows in the background are darker than windows in the front
• Selections are my favorite gray-blue
• Information windows, tool tips and hints are a faint yellow
• Text is dark gray, not black (black is to hard on the eye)
• Window corners are rounded
• Tabs and panels should look like they are extruded a bit
• Firefox and Thunderbird have corresponding themes
• Icons are more photo realistic (however, harddrives do not have to look like the naked bare metal)
• Prefer XML definition to images (slower loading)
  

I know that not everyone shares my taste. I think that there should be two themes, one bright and one dark.

I also consider positioning the window buttons (max, min, close) on the top left side. This minimizes the way, you have to move the mouse.