@AMIGASYSTEM - In the end, you picked up on my train of thought your video shows the path to follow, which is to improve Wanderer! As for the graphics, “the eye wants its share, too.”
I disagree... I personally find every single theme I've seen in this thread unappealing for whichever reasons... Your theme the font is horrendous and hard to read the icons screw early to mid 2000's , and that's the problem with saying "modernize". you don't get to decide what other people like. you merely decide what you like.
That's also the point: what's the meaning of modernised? What are the stylish elements that would let people say: "it's modern"?
Besides that (which is the most important thing: definitions and requirements should be the bare minimum when talking about something more technical), I'm quite sure that the original 3.1 look & feel can be "modernise" while keeping its identity (therefore, recognisability for existing users).
Edited by cdimauro on 30-08-2026 00:30, 3 days ago
That's why themes are changable on every linux and AROS distro. Some like it like 1989, some like it like 2000, some like it like 2020. Some like it "dark", some like it "light". The key is to make the changability quick, easy and stable and let the people be happy with whatever their choice is.
In my opinion teaser videos/demo videos of AROS distributions should have a ~10 seconds section where is quickly shows the same distribution using different themes: "modern", "retro", "dark", "light". That's actually in my opinion the best way to attract the widest set of possible users: because "everyone" will find "something" that he or she like in that video. Instead of "it's ONLY retro" or "it's ONLY early 2000s" it ends up being "it's retro TOO", "it's early 2000s TOO"
Edited by deadwood on 30-08-2026 02:14, 3 days ago
visuality is certainly not unimportant. But as mentioned tastes are different. It is simply impossible to have something "everybody" likes. And you have different people with different background. Some use Windows, some use Apple, some Linux.
But where I see big potential are ARM-User. I would say this group is less interested in visuals than average users outside, more what you can do with it. So when Aros is for example running stable on all RPis and supports the hardware and a basic set of applications is available, most important a browser, then you can set up a distribution and create wiki pages what are the differences between common known OSs like MacOS or Linux and Aros and what changes in preferences are needed and where, compared with what people know. I have for example started to a kind of manual for aros vision where I describe also first steps. Something like that is certainly needed. If you have no experience with amiga then it is certainly confusing at first. The icons should be changed of course but they can be typical amiga icons too. I do not see those as "ugly". It is part of the heritage.
I have old amiga magazines who have long courses explaining amiga hardware, amigaos or details like amigados and shell for beginners. We had no beginners in substantial numbers in recent years and the existing user base knew amiga but this could (hopefully) change. Then need for informations for beginners will rise again.
Regarding videos, in my view showing functionality is more important than icon sets. Perhaps it is just me but to attract users you must show them aros running fast on RPi, use a browser to access webpages, use the hardware like Wifi and start some games. People will not say oh aros runs better and faster on RPi than any other system but I do not use it because of the icons. On Aros Vision I solved that by offering two different icon sets as standard, 3.1 style and 4.0 style, between both you could change with a menu. Basically two sets on harddrive which I copied. You could do that of course with different icon sets. It is work of course.
@terminills - [... Your theme the font is horrendous and hard to read the icons screw early to mid 2000's , and that's the problem with saying "modernize". you don't get to decide what other people like. you merely decide what you like.
Unfortunately, fonts on Wanderer are a sore spot that needs improvement; on light backgrounds, you can’t switch the font color to black, as you can on all Amiga systems.
By default, I chose a simple font that’s easier to read, especially for those with poor eyesight. In any case, on AROS One you can change the font—no one’s stopping you—and the same goes for themes: there are 43 on AROS One, with something for every taste, including OS3-style themes.
Unfortuantely a lot of people do go with first impressions. Psychologists tell us on first meeting a person you appraise then by their appearance in just 10 s, and I suspect it's the same for many with an OS.
As I mentioned in another thread, my students (and indeed my daughters) have commented that my setup looks dated to them; I like the 3D look, they are used to the flat style of modern Windows and smartphones. So I feel we do need a range of themes to cater to a range of tastes and I agree that when AROS is showcased a range of styles coud be shown (I need to consider this for any future shows). An easy to use editor to customise themes furter would be also be ideal.
I'm glad we are having a discussion about visual aesthetics. Customizing AROS is an important aspect of the OS Experience in my opinion. It's a good feeling to be able to assemble a nice looking Theme we can enjoy!
When I say Theme I mean the whole thing! The theme included the set of images used for desktop background, window background, startup sound, window style & icon set being used. We have a Theme Manager that Paolo setup in Lua. But it doesn't work always because it requires AmiLua. It's all lacking as a Theme Manager where we can choose Backgrounds, Sounds, Icons & Window Styles. It does ok with the last one & it's a good start but it needs to re-written in 'c' code as a System Component.
For my part I'm working on a project called "Theme Builder" but at first it's more of window theme replicator for themes with solid fill colors. It replaces the primary color in the theme elements which can be tedious. It saves the "default" png images as theme elements to build a new colored theme rather than doing it by hand. It uses PNG datatype to open each element. After traversing the pixel array to replace colors it uses PNG datatype to save the new theme element. This is for mass producing themes. I am doing the same for mass production of colored icons from base images.
On AROS One I saw a video where it's possible to change desktop background & window theme style with just a button icon. That's cool. We need an easy Theme Manager to install these customizations quickly.
It might be a good idea to have an "Extras" Package like some OS'es did in the early '90's onwards. It can be an ISO of backgrounds, icons, etc.
Documentation is great. We don't have paper manuals like in the early days. Now we have Amiga Guides & PDF Manuals. That's perfectly fine. AROS users will need a thorough online user guide with links to How To Articles written by users. I need these guides too because I know nothing about setting up SMB, wifi, or even AHI sound. If we could have PDF Manuals in a Docs Drawer or PDF's Distro maintainers can download to copy to such a location that would be great for users who are to lazy to go online & would rather spend countless hours reading wordy, nerdy manuals.
I like the idea of the Welcome! Text File with a nice icon on the Desktop. It's a brief introduction with links to online information about AROS.
Edited by miker1264 on 30-08-2026 09:22, 3 days ago
Problem is you need a kind of manual for every distribution basically
As a example aros vision fetches time from a time server and the time finally depends on preferences in local
but that can be in other distributions like Aros One different
Much is similar of course at the basic like settings fonts or keyboard
also propably much is different from other platforms, people will not understand at first. Of course you can ask AI like that of google about it, but it needs a lot of learning at first. Aros is different.
In Aros Vision Magellan I also offer the option to change background, theme and icons by selecting menu. Basically it is done by copying pref files and/or other files or even deleting a file
I think this thread is arguing about the wrong axis. The question isn't retro vs. modern. The question is honest vs imitative.
Look at games from the late 90s: pre-rendered backgrounds aged badly because they chased unattainable photorealism, while pixel art remains timeless by respecting constraints. The same applies to Amiga-land themes: many modern themes are just hobbyist copies of XP, Aqua, or early Gnome. Mainstream copies age poorly as the original evolves and the copy remains static. The plain 3.x look aged better for the same reason pixel art did: it doesn't pretend to be anything.
And this matters precisely because I want AROS to be a real alternative OS, not a museum piece. Nobody switches to a system that looks like a worse version of the thing they already have. Haiku understood this: it is not winning on numbers, but nobody confuses it with anything else, and that is why people take it seriously.
So my proposal for the upstream default:
A clean, flat-ish/skeumorphic (skeumorphism is back) remake of 3.x. Same/similar proportions and gadget language, no bevels, no or very subtle gradients, drop shadows only where it makes sense. One readable font with proper contrast on light and dark backgrounds. Low-poly done with pride, not a pre-render. In fact, it would be amazing to have a design system - a documented set of choices, paddings, font styles. Consider Apple HIG or even Material.
Everything else lives in themes, and switching must be one click, stable, and cover the whole package: window style, icons, backgrounds, sounds. Distributions ship whatever they like on top. That ends this debate for good, because nobody has to win it.
Then sell AROS on what an alternative is judged by, not on icons. Fast, small, comprehensible: a whole OS that boots in seconds, fits in one person's head, and can be changed by that person. Put that in the videos, and show the theme switch for ten seconds, as deadwood suggested.
Omarchy is the current proof this works: one opinionated default, whole-system theme switch on one keystroke, and a loud, explicit ambition to win the desktop. Nobody there is voting on window borders. AROS cannot borrow the Linux foundations, but it can borrow the attitude: decide, ship the decision as the default, make everything else a theme, and say where you are going. I came back to Amiga because I think this platform still has somewhere to go, not because I want to stay in 1992.
Edited by coffeecat on 30-08-2026 12:59, 2 days ago
@coffeecat - I think this thread is arguing about the wrong axis. The question isn't retro vs. modern. The question is honest vs imitative.
Look at games from the late 90s: pre-rendered backgrounds aged badly because they chased unattainable photorealism, while pixel art remains timeless by respecting constraints. The same applies to Amiga-land themes: many modern themes are just hobbyist copies of XP, Aqua, or early Gnome. Mainstream copies age poorly as the original evolves and the copy remains static. The plain 3.x look aged better for the same reason pixel art did: it doesn't pretend to be anything.
And this matters precisely because I want AROS to be a real alternative OS, not a museum piece. Nobody switches to a system that looks like a worse version of the thing they already have. Haiku understood this: it is not winning on numbers, but nobody confuses it with anything else, and that is why people take it seriously.
So my proposal for the upstream default:
A clean, flat-ish/skeumorphic (skeumorphism is back) remake of 3.x. Same/similar proportions and gadget language, no bevels, no or very subtle gradients, drop shadows only where it makes sense. One readable font with proper contrast on light and dark backgrounds. Low-poly done with pride, not a pre-render. In fact, it would be amazing to have a design system - a documented set of choices, paddings, font styles. Consider Apple HIG or even Material.
Everything else lives in themes, and switching must be one click, stable, and cover the whole package: window style, icons, backgrounds, sounds. Distributions ship whatever they like on top. That ends this debate for good, because nobody has to win it.
Then sell AROS on what an alternative is judged by, not on icons. Fast, small, comprehensible: a whole OS that boots in seconds, fits in one person's head, and can be changed by that person. Put that in the videos, and show the theme switch for ten seconds, as deadwood suggested.
Omarchy is the current proof this works: one opinionated default, whole-system theme switch on one keystroke, and a loud, explicit ambition to win the desktop. Nobody there is voting on window borders. AROS cannot borrow the Linux foundations, but it can borrow the attitude: decide, ship the decision as the default, make everything else a theme, and say where you are going. I came back to Amiga because I think this platform still has somewhere to go, not because I want to stay in 1992.
As long as we're talking about looks and not functionality, infrastructure and proper integration it will always be the wrong question IMHO.
Edited by terminills on 30-08-2026 13:52, 2 days ago
As long as we're talking about looks and not functionality, infrastructure and proper integration it will always be the wrong question IMHO.
Agreed, and that's why my actual proposal is infrastructure: a theme engine that works the same everywhere, and a documented design system apps can build against. The default look is the least important part of the post.
But if I get the point, I wonder if there's a bigger clash - when talking about functions and infrastructure, the question might be: what is AROS for, as a platform? Is it just AmigaOS3 on x86?
Edited by coffeecat on 30-08-2026 14:25, 2 days ago
That last part is a good question & it's probably something that we have all thought about. Is AROS just Amiga OS3.1 on x86? Or is it more?
I think that exciting times are coming! With the Raspberry Pi port of AROS there's an opportunity to show that AROS can be it's own flavor of OS, breaking it's ties with the past & embracing the future!
I'm so confident that AROS Pi or whichever distro arises for AROS on Raspberry Pi it will be so successful & popular that I ordered my own Raspberry Pi 400. It should arrive next week sometime.
I think that mostly I want to see how fast AROS is on Raspberry Pi. The native versions of AROS on real hardware seem so much faster than the hosted versions or emulated variety as in VirtualBox or VMWare.
Especially with the new support for Bluetooth & USB3 & newer drivers, these are exciting times for AROS.
Edited by miker1264 on 30-08-2026 15:58, 2 days ago
As long as we're talking about looks and not functionality, infrastructure and proper integration it will always be the wrong question IMHO.
Agreed, and that's why my actual proposal is infrastructure: a theme engine that works the same everywhere, and a documented design system apps can build against. The default look is the least important part of the post.
But if I get the point, I wonder if there's a bigger clash - when talking about functions and infrastructure, the question might be: what is AROS for, as a platform? Is it just AmigaOS3 on x86?
AmigaOS 3.1 API is baseline... It is not the goal. I personally run ABIv1 SMP on a Ryzen 3950 with 128GB of ram. I've been testing things like native clang, Chromium , Node , Electron. Kalamatee has added Multi User Support, Bluetooth, HDMI Audio, enhanced SMP support, ported to misc arches.
Aros is the continuation of AmigaOS 3, with compatibility but with an eye to the future.
Aros, with new porting, must attract new users, and they must stay—not just be satisfied, but see the prospect of using the system for various activities.
Aros could be the alternative operating system, faster and lighter, with some "specific" features that will appeal to users.
not long ago I was a little disappointed when people said aros is not amigaos, today I say "yes it is not". AmigaOS is now really oldfashioned. So AROS has a opportunity to break outside the typical retro bubble as a nice alternative OS. But for that starting must become as easy as possible. AROS has inherited much of Amiga and that is very different to other modern platforms. New users in many cases have no amiga background so we must see how we optimize both system and documentation that people can easily start and later get deeper inside and not be disappointed and leaave.
As a small example I tried to integrate as many unix commands (from aminet) in aros vision as possible and optimized it there. That would be the best idea, to make it useable like people know it already. And of course lots of documentation showing differences and similarities between the different platforms. A lot of work when done good, I know.
Although we have an online user guide it's very basic and it doesn't provide much for new AROS users.
So I have started to put together a PDF User Manual that will provide information for all flavors of AROS.
It's purpose is to guide new users in understanding how Amiga-like OS'es are organized and basic concepts. I'll post it on AROS Archives when it is completed in the next two weeks.
As far as Customizing AROS it can be copied to the Docs Drawer and it can be associated with the Welcome text file on the Desktop that greets new users. The text file is the start point with a brief introduction & links to manuals and useful information.
If you already have a PDF User Guide for your distro then please disregard.
Edited by miker1264 on 01-09-2026 11:16, 13 hours ago
On Aros, there are preferences that use Masonicons and other preferences with different icons.
USB Trident
Bluetooth
There are also preferences with the same icon USB and Bluetooth
I think everything could be standardized with Mason, Kens or glow if possibile and license permission, and that's it. A little effort for a uniform result.
What you think?
Edited by arosbeginner on 01-09-2026 11:14, 13 hours ago
The screenshots with the Gorilla Icons and bright yellow background that is difficult to read is how basic AROS looks just after compiling it.
There are different distros (distributions) that are maintained by some very dedicated, hard working AROS users!
Icaros Desktop was a distro that was maintained by Paolone but it hasn't been active for a few years. It's also only 32bit not newer 64bit.
As for Ken's v4 icons I was in contact with Ken a year or two ago and he gave permission to use his icons, modify them & distribute them since the designs are quite old now.
I use Ken's Icons almost exclusively because they look really nice & clean. It really gives AROS a more modern look with some nice icons!
also Kens icon set is relativ complete. It is always the problem to find icons for all included software, otherwise it looks not good either
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