The Top 10 Best Themes for Thunderbird 2.0
Eyecandy is one of my favorite things. Ask Steve or Jason. I love for stuff to look just really slick. So I’m going through this Thunderbird article called “10 must-have Thunderbird Addons (+ 25 more) because I also like wicked-sick plugins with all the coolest stuff because I get extremely bored very quickly. After getting all the totally rocking extensions, I came back to the sexiness of the whole thing. If I could make my Thunderbird look like the Viper that I’ve always wanted, I’d be totally set. Pulling up the theme page on mozilla.org, lots and lots of themes jumped out at me. Granted, not all of them are compatible with Thunderbird 2.0, which is what I’m using. Nevertheless, I decided to download the most popular themes that are compatible with T-Bird 2 and give ’em a spin on my desktop here.
After a few moments, it became apparent to me that I could just as easily rush through it and quickly pick something on an impulse that appealed to me and call ‘er good. On the other hand, the possibility existed that we could go through them one by one, make a little spreadsheet with some criteria on it, and grade them on the things that are important to me, in the way that I perceive them. Because it is so subjective and highly personalized, it would come as a surprise to me if this information were useful to anyone but me. Nevertheless, the possibility that one person may find it useful and beneficial is enough for me to pour my heart out. Thus, I leave it in your hands to be exceedingly thankful for my generosity.
The criteria of my most excellent grading scale (of 1 to 10) are outlined, in detail, with full weights, explanation, footnotes, cross-references, and bibliography as follows:
- edges/borders – The borders of the widgets cannot just end. They must have a proper border. This is how the eye knows where the widget ends. Otherwise, it looks like an unfinished paint project. You must have a proper border for it so that it can be properly placed and balanced by the eye. It cannot look sloppy. * claps hands twice * Please, people, sit up straight in your chairs. The weight for this one is 4.
- thumb scroller – Drives me to drink how these people think that they can design a spectacular theme and then get away with a stupid-looking thumb scroller! Please. That is one of the most used parts of the theme. Everyone always scrolls everything. That’s one of the most known laws of the Universe. Thusly, the thumb scroller must look good. Preferrably rounded edges, but at least look clean and crisp. The weight for this one is 6.
- crisp – ‘Sloppy’ will not cut it around here, people. You must be on the ball. Er… It just makes me a little twitchy when things aren’t neat and clean placed properly precisely where they go. They should also look like they fit there, not like they were jammed into that spot. The visual mass needs to be spread around properly and carefully and precisely. Don’t just vomit on some Saran Wrap and be all Emo and think you have a cool eclectic theme. Do it properly and neatly and cleanly. The weight for this one is 6.
- professional – When at work, it may be nice to use a theme that would impress a guy who owns three private jets, a yacht in the Andes, and 20 Jamaican snow mobiles. Er… it would be nice to appeal to a professional businessperson. Like some dude who owns his own corporation and has like 14 NFL rings on all his fingers and stuff. If you can make that guy double-take on your Thunderbird theme, you are officially “with it.” It has to look organized with no extreme coloration. Professional people do not need any further explanation and will already know precisely what I mean, because that’s part of who they are; they just get this type of thing. The weight for this one is 8.
- highlight/selection – Another quite serious mistake people make is that their whole theme rules, except the hightlight looks like a piece of masking tape pulled off a used bandaid. Come ON. If you make enough effort for the rest of the theme to look nice, please understand that the highlight is one of the most viewed parts of your theme. When you click on something, it highlights. When you roll over something, it highlights. Your eyes usually follow your mouse around the screen, and because that’s the thing that does the rolling over and clicking, your eyes are looking at the highlights a large part of the time. See how that works? The highlights must look nice, polished, and slick. The weight for this one is 7.
- use of color – Whether it is monochromatic, triadic, or synchronous, the colors must jive well together. Of course for me, the interpretation thereof is done by my very own eyeballs. Thus, the grade on this one will be what I think about how the creator used color with their theme. The weight for this one is 7.
The score for each category will be multiplied by the weight for that category. Each of these values will then be added all together for a total overall “Weighted Score.” With all of this deeply explanatory psychological underlying subliminally entrenched childhood tragedy now thoroughly worked out of my system, it may very well be possible to jump right into the cool stuff. With that, here we go.
- ‘edges/borders’ score = 6
- ‘thumb scroller’ score = 6
- ‘crisp’ score = 6
- ‘professional’ score = 6
- ‘highlight/selection’ score = 7
- ‘color’ score = 6
- Total Score = 37/60
- Weighted Score = 241
- ‘edges/borders’ score = 5
- ‘thumb scroller’ score = 5
- ‘crisp’ score = 7
- ‘professional’ score = 7
- ‘highlight/selection’ score = 6
- ‘color’ score = 7
- Total Score = 37/60
- Weighted Score = 244
- ‘edges/borders’ score = 3
- ‘thumb scroller’ score = 8
- ‘crisp’ score = 7
- ‘professional’ score = 6
- ‘highlight/selection’ score = 7
- ‘color’ score = 7
- Total Score = 37/60
- Weighted Score = 246
- ‘edges/borders’ score = 7
- ‘thumb scroller’ score = 5
- ‘crisp’ score = 7
- ‘professional’ score = 7
- ‘highlight/selection’ score = 5
- ‘color’ score = 8
- Total Score = 39
- Weighted Score = 254
- ‘edges/borders’ score = 7
- ‘thumb scroller’ score = 4
- ‘crisp’ score = 7
- ‘professional’ score = 8
- ‘highlight/selection’ score = 5
- ‘color’ score = 8
- Total Score = 39/60
- Weighted Score = 256
- ‘edges/borders’ score = 4
- ‘thumb scroller’ score = 7
- ‘crisp’ score = 7
- ‘professional’ score = 6
- ‘highlight/selection’ score = 8
- ‘color’ score = 7
- Total Score = 39/60
- Weighted Score = 257
- ‘edges/borders’ score = 7
- ‘thumb scroller’ score = 5
- ‘crisp’ score = 6
- ‘professional’ score = 7
- ‘highlight/selection’ score = 7
- ‘color’ score = 8
- Total Score = 40/60
- Weighted Score = 262
- ‘edges/borders’ score = 4
- ‘thumb scroller’ score = 7
- ‘crisp’ score = 7
- ‘professional’ score = 7
- ‘highlight/selection’ score = 8
- ‘color’ score = 7
- Total Score = 40/60
- Weighted Score = 265
- ‘edges/borders’ score = 6
- ‘thumb scroller’ score = 5
- ‘crisp’ score = 8
- ‘professional’ score = 7
- ‘highlight/selection’ score = 7
- ‘color’ score = 8
- Total Score = 41/60
- Weighted Score = 269
- ‘edges/borders’ score = 4
- ‘thumb scroller’ score = 8
- ‘crisp’ score = 7
- ‘professional’ score = 8
- ‘highlight/selection’ score = 8
- ‘color’ score = 7
- Total Score = 42/60
- Weighted Score = 279
All in all, these top 10 themes all have their strengths. Some of them have some more obvious flaws than others, but overall, they provide a collection of 10 great themes to have. Again, this evaluation was made solely according to my tastes. Take a look at the link to the themes I provided above. There are quite a bit more than the ones I covered here, but these are the 10 best according to my criteria, grading, and weights. Hopefully, this has been a somewhat insightful demonstration of a perfect way to waste 3 hours of your day.
