I’ve recently got a few comments from a visitor saying “hurry up and release the f**king theme” and “do your f**king job.”

Now I know that there is bound to be one jerk out of hundreds of users, but it’s comments like these that make me wonder why I continue to spend my time on themes.  It’s not my job and, the more negative comments I get, the slower my progress will be.  These things take hours to build and there is a lot to take into consideration.

On the other hand I’ve gotten a lot of comments recently about people who are so passionate about Miint that they’d switch back to Firefox 2 until it was ready for Firefox 3.  These kind of comments drive me.  They are not yelling at me but encouraging me to spend more time theming.  And the good news is, Miint for Firefox 3 has come along way in just two and a half hours.

What I’m trying to point out here is that when you don’t pay for something, you should not demand updates and start swearing at developers.  We do this because we want to, because we love to, not because we have to.

Give a little respect to those that create free addons, themes and free software in general.

With the Firefox 3 release upon us, a lot of people will be wondering about the status of my themes.

So what is the status?

Currently, I have started work on iPox.  It’s looking pretty nice and it has advanced a bit from the current Firefox 2 version.  However, it’s a complete re-write.  I started from scratch and have a lot of editing to do.

To help me prioritize the order of other theme updates, please vote for which theme you’d like to see updated sooner rather than later. I do have a vague idea for the order that I’m going to work on them, but the votes could sway my decision.

Notes: iPox is not in the poll as it’s going to be completed first.  You may also vote for up to two.

I don’t have a release date on iPox yet and the other themes are a ways off.  Unfortunately, I haven’t yet found an easy way to transfer a theme from Firefox 2 to Firefox 3.

I do plan on continuing to theme and getting everyone converted over.  It’s just a matter of time.

MidnightFox has always been a great theme. It’s dark, yet usable and, as stated by others, one of the best dark themes out there. However, I wanted more.

While fixing a few toolbar issue with MidnightFox, I started updating other pieces. I reworked the tabs, the bookmarks, some menus and the the navigation buttons. Taking extero’s icons and leveraging Pixelmator’s menu design, I created much nicer toolbar with icons that ‘pop’ when you roll over them.

MidnightFoxy was first set to replace MidnightFox, however some of the testers were partial to the old buttons. So MidnigthFoxy was born. It’s basically the same theme, only with a more polished toolbar.

There are certainly areas for improvement, but aren’t there always? I’m going to focus my theme updates on Firefox 3 and we’ll circle back with MidnightFoxy when it’s slated for the browser upgrade.

But, for now, it’s available for Firefox 2 and for everyone to enjoy!

Download MidnightFoxy

Currently in Mozilla’s sandbox.

One of the biggest updates were all new toolbar buttons. I used the same icons I have in extero and I took some direction from Pixelmator for that’s the graphic design program I was using. I also tweaked the tabs and a few other areas to create a darker more polished version of MidnightFox.

Before I shock all the current users by releasing an update, I’d love to get your feedback. Do you feel it’s a worthy update to MidnightFox? Or do you feel that this should be a spin off theme all together and leave MidnightFox’s buttons alone?

It’s always best to try things out first, so you can get a real feel for the theme. You can install the latest MidnightFox beta, give it a spin, and leave your comments below.

To install, right click this link and save the file to your desktop. Then open Firefox’ addons window and drag and drop the mf66a.jar file onto the addons window.  It should then install.

Firefox 3 not yet supported.

extero is a gray theme with bright brilliant icons from Jonas. It was created to be just a little bit different, but nothing overboard.

Checkout extero and see what you think.

What’s different about extero? The main thing is the tab bar. It was designed to bring the tab bar to the front. It’s kind of hard to explain, so you’ll have to check it out. extero also uses dots instead of little arrows for menus and, back by popular demand, the close button is on the left.

Granted, it’s not finished in my mind yet. I’m unsatisfied with the right click menus and am torn on what to do. If I leave them black, I have to get rid of the border somehow. If I change them, what to?

A HUGE thank you goes out to Jonas Rask Design who created, then gave away, the icons used in extero. Without them, this theme wouldn’t look half as good.

As the progress of extero slows down as it nears competition, I thought I’d give a public preview. Feedback is welcome! Enjoy.

Install extero Preview 1

extero uses great icons designed by Jonasrask Design which they gave out for free. Seeing as I couldn’t turn up the icons, I built them into a Firefox theme.

I’m trying to make extero a bit different. The tab bar is transparent and inactive tabs take on a dark look and feel to make them appear in the background. I’m also using dots to mark sub-menus in right click menus instead of arrows. Most area of extero are basic and flat where as the icons are colorful and nice. I’m still working out a few concerns, but am happy with it overall so far.

I’m not giving a release date, but it should be out, in beta or final form, in the upcoming weeks.

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