It blows my mind how diverse these are, and how diverse their creators were. One single artist, Martha Royer, made over two hundred themes: https://macthemes.garden/authors/martha-royer/ (They're not all amazing in quality, but the sheer industriousness is staggering.)
I was lurking around the equivalent Windows community in roughly the same era (well, a couple of years later) and it was nothing like this. Far fewer people had the patience for WindowBlinds (the Kaleidoscope equivalent) or deep OS modding, and they tended to all be the same few types of person with more-or-less the same tastes—mostly the kind of guy who thought that an RGB fan in a brushed aluminum tower PC was the height of self-expression. (Basic Windows Plus themes were way more primitive than what was possible with the right tools.) It's astonishing to see what looks like the entirety of the pre-dot-com-crash web's wonderful, weird diversity reproduced in perfect miniature over in the Mac space.
Although I keep scrolling, and I haven't found a legit NeXT theme yet. There are a few that get close but nothing with the actual UI assets. Maybe this is an opportunity...
Though they were a step down from Kaleidoscope schemes and appearance manager themes in terms of what they could do, those early OS X themes remain some of the nicest looking, highest fidelity themes on any platform. In particular, those made by Max Rudberg[0] hold a special place in my heart.
Modern theming systems have high DPI support which is in theory an upgrade, but the desktop appearance zeitgeist has skewed so flat and dull that the extra pixels make no material difference.
I used Siro for years in that era, great looking theme. IMO it was cleaner than the official theme, since this was Apple’s “brushed metal” era when someone decided that the Finder should literally embody a filing cabinet.
In the 00s, I remember leaning on LiteStep and Stardock (I think?) for theming rather than anything specific to windows
indigodaddy · 4h ago
Those days were pretty cool. I think that whole scene is pretty much dead for Windows now? Not a shell replacement, but I guess rainmeter is still going it looks like? But not sure if any of the shell replacements are still around or even a possibility/thing for W11 these days...
mr_sturd · 11h ago
I remember trying to make my own on Windows XP. If I remember correctly, the theme files could be opened with an application which extracted resources from .exe and .dll files.
Affric · 10h ago
That Martha Royer page is amazing.
"I remember mama"
wow!
cosmic_cheese · 10h ago
Back in the day, Kaleidoscope schemes and later appearance manager themes were one of my favorite things about owning a computer. Combined with Classic Mac OS extensions it seemed like there was nothing you couldn’t do when it came to customization. Even modern desktop Linux, as vaunted as it is for its customizability, struggles to compare.
Now of course Classic Mac OS was a security nightmare but I wish that a modern OS would try to replicate that incredible level of flexibility in a more secure manner. Will it be difficult? Sure, but I don’t think it’s impossible. I believe that something resembling the “app extension” architecture employed by modern macOS which runs extensions as sandboxed processes which are given access to special APIs would be a good starting point.
Lammy · 8h ago
I miss this era so much.
> Turns out this action didn't have a keyboard shortcut until Mac OS X? Didn't know that!
Edit your Finder and/or System with ResEdit and you can add or change any keyboard shortcuts you want.
hoistbypetard · 10h ago
I'd totally pay to have these (especially a good vanilla Mac OS 8/9 theme) in a usable from on a Linux box today. I liked them then, and I'd still like to have them now. Anyone want to make one that works on Plasma/GTK and take my money?
compton93 · 9h ago
A guy on reddit was working on one named PrismWM but he went AWOL. There was a mac os 9 lookandfeel in JDK 1.1 that could be updated to a modern version of Java as well.
antfarm · 2h ago
Good memories! Back in the days I used Kaleidoscope to style my PowerMac (System 7.5) to look like BeOS, but most importantly, I had an extension that gave me the column browser in the Finder that I had seen on the NeXT Cubes at university. In most courses, I was the only student who used a Mac for homework assignments.
milesskorpen · 12h ago
Such a blast from the past. Had so much fun with these back in the day, along with Winamp themes. I can't tell if I've aged or tech has aged such that this kind of thing isn't really around any more. Probably both.
bix6 · 11h ago
I would do anything to have Monkey Paradise on my current computer.
mrweasel · 1h ago
Using Monkey Paradise as your desktop theme would somehow take a bit of the edge of that next database upgrade.
cflewis · 11h ago
Incredibly I was thinking the exact same thing.
Computers used to fun! I miss the candy iMac theming.
DiscourseFan · 7h ago
Probably would have to be a passion project. I don't think there's a large enough market for it. Maybe someone should contact the Apple UI team to import these old themes?
dylan604 · 5h ago
Why do you think computer users today would be so much less interested in customizing their desktop that there would be no market for it? I think if a tool/app were to appear that customized the modern macOS finder to this extent, it would be #1 on the AppStore within hours
bix6 · 4h ago
Is it even possible to make something like this with macOS restrictions?
betterThanTexas · 12h ago
I didn't have root access to my family computer during this era, and I will forever be angry at apple for not allowing us to continue this fun until today.
EDIT: actually it looks like this is significantly older than that. I definitely didn't know enough to theme OS 9 when it was my main driver.
ugh123 · 12h ago
Can these be installed on modern macs?
rezmason · 11h ago
The short answer is, sadly, no— Apple has the modern macOS UI locked up.
The long answer is, if you're willing to disable systemwide security features, you can experiment with modifying the appearance of macOS, but to my knowledge no one has made a real attempt to in a while. Furthermore, the themes on display here fit a paradigm where the UI is a composite of bitmap images, whereas the modern macOS is largely built from vector graphics.
But if you vectorize every bitmap in an old theme, so that individual pixels of color are converted to vector graphic rectangles; if you learn how modern macOS builds its appearance; if you make a robust solution and thoroughly test it, so that it will work 100% of the time with every app ever; if you do _all_ of that, you will still be unable to _share_ your creation with most Mac users, because very few of us would disable systemwide security for the sake of running a third party system enhancement.
That's one of the major contributors to the success of Mac OS 9 theming: third party system extensions were commonplace, they were the backbone of the ecosystem, and Apple had no mechanism for preventing their use.
rezmason · 11h ago
I should have mentioned a couple other things:
1. Kaleidoscope (the most common OS 9 theme system extension) runs fine under emulation, so if you just want to _enjoy_ these themes, your best bet is the SheepShaver emulator (in my opinion).
2. Nothing's stopping us from creating an alternative desktop environment for the Mac, such as XQuartz. And then you can build theme support on top of something like that. But most applications wouldn't use that desktop environment for their own UI.
betterThanTexas · 10h ago
> Nothing's stopping us from creating an alternative desktop environment for the Mac, such as XQuartz.
Yea but why use a mac at that point? I don't see anyone on the linux side of things making anything that acknowledges why people use macs in the first place; the entire ecosystem is built to reproduce the IBM PC (...in a unix/like environment). Particularly with its disastrous keybindings and perplexing UI decisions.
zapzupnz · 8h ago
The pipeline from Windows to Linux is fairly clear. The pipeline from Mac to Linux is less evident; the dyed in the wool Mac users tend to stay that way, using Linux for work rather than a daily driver.
Queue a Mac-to-Linux user to contradict this, and there's plenty of them, but we Mac users are truly the dictionary definition of the sunk cost fallacy in more ways than one.
cosmic_cheese · 7h ago
It doesn’t help matters that desktop environments that try to do things “the mac way” and don’t just mimic macOS superficially (like Pantheon/elementary) don’t exist. Everything is either Win9X-like (KDE, Cinnamon, XFCE, LxQt, etc) or tablet-like (GNOME). For the most part, to a longtime Mac user switching to Linux feels like switching to a bizarre alternate universe Windows that’s built around the Linux kernel instead of the NT kernel.
gyomu · 5h ago
Apple hardware quality is just orders of magnitude beyond what competitors do. The day this stops being true (whether because Apple slips too much, or because competitors step up in major ways - not sure which is likelier) I expect we’ll see a lot more Mac-to-Linux migrations, with the virtuous circle kind of benefits that this can bring.
DiscourseFan · 7h ago
I've been burned by ArchLinux too many times before...
rezmason · 6h ago
> Yea but why use a mac at that point?
I ask myself that with increasing frequency. Looking at all the Linux options feels like wandering through Akihabara, but one day the macOS that remains will be so unlike the macOS I enjoyed, that I'll jump the fence.
Anyway, if someone does make a new Mac desktop environment, it'd probably be for fun more than anything. Or a Terry Davis scenario.
I was so hyped for a moment when I thought that maybe this was a site for a new MacOS theme program. I miss Kaleidoscope.
WillAdams · 11h ago
There was one theme, which had a feature which I _really_ wish had become a standard --- the title bar collapsing down to the size of the text when "window-shaded" by double-clicking --- I never liked that feature until that theme came along, and it is about the only thing about Mac OS 9 and earlier that I miss.
dylan604 · 5h ago
I miss dragging a window to the bottom of the screen so that it became a tab, and then clicking the tab would restore the window back into the Finder frame. I don't use GUI windows like I used to in Classic OS. I now barrel my way around with CLI, and then 'open .' when arriving at the destination. So would I still use that tab feature today if available? Probably, not, and that's probably why it's no longer a thing even if other people that wouldn't use it have different reasons for not.
WillAdams · 4h ago
Isn't that much like minimizing a window to the Dock?
dylan604 · 2h ago
maybe if you squint while tilting your head as you look at it. tabs could be moved around and rearranged. minimizing to the dock has zero control
davidmurphy · 10h ago
As a lifelong Mac geek (I work for the Computer History Museum, where I organized our Macintosh 40th Anniversary and Lisa 40th events), I just want to say love this :)
The nolstalgia is real. Thanks for your hard work!
emremremr · 8h ago
Looks like they’re missing the greyscale original Mac one.
sprash · 11h ago
Seems like somebody forgot to read the pamphlet[1].
I was lurking around the equivalent Windows community in roughly the same era (well, a couple of years later) and it was nothing like this. Far fewer people had the patience for WindowBlinds (the Kaleidoscope equivalent) or deep OS modding, and they tended to all be the same few types of person with more-or-less the same tastes—mostly the kind of guy who thought that an RGB fan in a brushed aluminum tower PC was the height of self-expression. (Basic Windows Plus themes were way more primitive than what was possible with the right tools.) It's astonishing to see what looks like the entirety of the pre-dot-com-crash web's wonderful, weird diversity reproduced in perfect miniature over in the Mac space.
Although I keep scrolling, and I haven't found a legit NeXT theme yet. There are a few that get close but nothing with the actual UI assets. Maybe this is an opportunity...
EDIT: For those curious, here's roughly what themes on OS X looked like in the 2000s: https://macgui.com/downloads/?cat_id=10
Also, special mentions for obscure GUI clones:
- Xerox Star: https://macthemes.garden/themes/ede837fa5df1-xerox-star/
- QNX: https://macthemes.garden/themes/c46eae6cd818-mac-qnx/
- Solaris CDE: https://macthemes.garden/themes/8ba34a581676-macsolaris/
- the classic X Athena widgets: https://macthemes.garden/themes/533452549350-xlook-athenaxlo...
- Rhapsody, because obviously: https://macthemes.garden/themes/b0c635d1faf0-rhapsody-k2/
Modern theming systems have high DPI support which is in theory an upgrade, but the desktop appearance zeitgeist has skewed so flat and dull that the extra pixels make no material difference.
[0]: https://maxrudberg.com/themes.html
https://macgui.com/downloads/?file_id=1318
"I remember mama"
wow!
Now of course Classic Mac OS was a security nightmare but I wish that a modern OS would try to replicate that incredible level of flexibility in a more secure manner. Will it be difficult? Sure, but I don’t think it’s impossible. I believe that something resembling the “app extension” architecture employed by modern macOS which runs extensions as sandboxed processes which are given access to special APIs would be a good starting point.
> Turns out this action didn't have a keyboard shortcut until Mac OS X? Didn't know that!
Edit your Finder and/or System with ResEdit and you can add or change any keyboard shortcuts you want.
Computers used to fun! I miss the candy iMac theming.
EDIT: actually it looks like this is significantly older than that. I definitely didn't know enough to theme OS 9 when it was my main driver.
The long answer is, if you're willing to disable systemwide security features, you can experiment with modifying the appearance of macOS, but to my knowledge no one has made a real attempt to in a while. Furthermore, the themes on display here fit a paradigm where the UI is a composite of bitmap images, whereas the modern macOS is largely built from vector graphics.
But if you vectorize every bitmap in an old theme, so that individual pixels of color are converted to vector graphic rectangles; if you learn how modern macOS builds its appearance; if you make a robust solution and thoroughly test it, so that it will work 100% of the time with every app ever; if you do _all_ of that, you will still be unable to _share_ your creation with most Mac users, because very few of us would disable systemwide security for the sake of running a third party system enhancement.
That's one of the major contributors to the success of Mac OS 9 theming: third party system extensions were commonplace, they were the backbone of the ecosystem, and Apple had no mechanism for preventing their use.
1. Kaleidoscope (the most common OS 9 theme system extension) runs fine under emulation, so if you just want to _enjoy_ these themes, your best bet is the SheepShaver emulator (in my opinion).
2. Nothing's stopping us from creating an alternative desktop environment for the Mac, such as XQuartz. And then you can build theme support on top of something like that. But most applications wouldn't use that desktop environment for their own UI.
Yea but why use a mac at that point? I don't see anyone on the linux side of things making anything that acknowledges why people use macs in the first place; the entire ecosystem is built to reproduce the IBM PC (...in a unix/like environment). Particularly with its disastrous keybindings and perplexing UI decisions.
Queue a Mac-to-Linux user to contradict this, and there's plenty of them, but we Mac users are truly the dictionary definition of the sunk cost fallacy in more ways than one.
I ask myself that with increasing frequency. Looking at all the Linux options feels like wandering through Akihabara, but one day the macOS that remains will be so unlike the macOS I enjoyed, that I'll jump the fence.
Anyway, if someone does make a new Mac desktop environment, it'd probably be for fun more than anything. Or a Terry Davis scenario.
There was a time, though, long ago…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsanity
…the brief era of “Haxies”. There was an application called ShapeShifter that allowed for Mac OS X theming.
That epoch is long gone, and I can barely even find screenshots. But it existed.
I liked Kaleidoscope, but it got old, really quick.
Some of the themes were outstanding, but some were damn near unusable.
Themes relied on system hooks that would make modern security professionals defecate masonry. OS X got rid of all that stuff.
The nolstalgia is real. Thanks for your hard work!
1.: https://stopthemingmy.app/
2. This is targeted at distro maintainers, not end users.