Bluecurve Theme Modification Experiments

[Steven Garrity]

I've been thinking about ways to modernize the RedHat/Fedora Bluecurve 
theme lately and have started trying my ideas out in practice.

My first goal is to improve on the Windows95-esque battleship-grey that 
colors all of the UI chrome. See this screenshot of Windows 98/2000/XP 
evolved: 
http://actsofvolition.com/images/screenshots/Display-95-through-XP.png 
Note the subtle color difference between 98 and 2000 - but it makes a 
huge improvement.

I was looking at this screenshot of an XFCE beta 
(http://xfce.org/images/screenshots/xfce42.png)  and was wondering why 
that main start menu looked so good (even though it was just using the 
bluecurve icons). It turns out it's a soft-beige rather than the 
battleship grey.

So, I've tried this out with Bluecurve. The only change so far is that 
th primary chrome is now slightly softer and more beige than grey. Some 
elements that are still pure-grey (alternative list backgrounds, 
depressed buttons, etc) will look a bit odd next to the new beige, but 
I'd do them to.

Here are before and after screenshots  - open them in tabs and switch 
back and forth to compare:
http://actsofvolition.com/images/screenshots/bluecurve-before.png
http://actsofvolition.com/images/screenshots/bluecurve-after.png

The updated theme is here: 
http://actsofvolition.com/images/screenshots/Bluecurve-2.tar.gz
(once installed, you have to have to go to "Theme Details"  and choose 
Bluecurve-2 in the "Controls" tab).

Thoughts and feedback are welcome - particularly from those who maintain 
the current Bluecurve theme in Fedora. I'm much more interested in 
trying to help improve the defaults than I am in maintaining an optional 
theme.

Thanks,
Steven Garrity