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.

The best one, if you are actually on a Mac, is probably GrApple by Aronnax. His attention to detail is amazing. Other good choices are Pinstripe (again Mac only), iSafari and iAqua, my own creation.

However, there are many many more choices out there. Mozilla Taiwan has a forum thread going with screen shots and download links for many other alternatives. Some look pretty good and some are, oddly enough, not very Mac friendly.

If you try any, let us know how well they work. I tried Castripe which turned out to be a pretty decent theme.

And, believe it or not, Mozilla may actually be creating a Safari like theme for the Mac version of Firefox 3. The mockups don’t look to bad, but it’s not quite the polished Mac look and feel that Apple makes. I’m sure they’ll iron out those details though.

So what’s your favorite Mac like Firefox theme?

If you’d rather connect via Pownce, I’m now no that too. I’ll use it about as much as I do Twitter, and that’s not a whole lot.

I’ve also been checking out Skitch, the new little graphics program that’s suppose to be amazing. So far, it looks very cool, acts great, but has been troublesum to actually use. Maybe I haven’t put enough time into learning it, or maybe I’m just stuck in my Fireworks ways, but Skitch just doesn’t seem quite as cool as I though it would. As I use it more though, I’ll probably like it more.

One last thing, I have iAqua up on the Mozilla Addon site. However, I need a bunch of reviews before they’ll make it live. So, if you could, please go over and review it. Remember, it’s in the sandbox!

So what’s new in beta 3? So glad you asked.

• Updated Progress Bar. Just a tiny bit.
• Updated Bookmarks bar so if you have more than one line, it doesn’t look completely ugly. It’s been condensed a bit too.
• Go button themed to be end of URL bar.
• Drop down icon in URL bar re-themed.
• Tab close button moved to the left of each tab.
• Buttons are now clear by default. Blue on hover/press. Like OSX.
• Button font is Lucida Grande for those that have it. Arial for those that don’t.
• Condensed navigation toolbar height.
• Main toolbar is now white. That’s a Windows only thing. (I think this works correctly)
• Minimize, Maxamize and Close full screen buttons are now Mac like. Again, Windows only. (Actually, I don’t think this feature works right. Just hit F11 on windows to enter and exit full screen mode.)

Please leave any feedback in the comments. This will probably be version 1.0 that will be released to the official Mozilla Addon’s site. Then the feedback will come poring in with many odd requests.

Download iAqua 0.3beta!

The number of additions to 0.2beta are to many to count but here are a few:

• Apple like scrollbars.
• Re-worked and completed large toolbar buttons.
• Add small toolbar buttons
• Added preferences buttons.
• Added bookmarks manager buttons.
• Updated bookmark bar colors.
• Updated auto complete hover colors.
• Window backgrounds customized.
• Apple like progressbar.
• Apple like buttons.

Those are all that I can remember at this point. If you liked iAqua 0.1b you’ll love 0.2b.

Download iAqua 0.2beta - iAqua 0.3beta is out!

Note: Not tested on anything but Mac, but it should work.

This all started when I ran across a forum post over at MacThemes. Ed posted about an idea that Mozilla had for Firefox 2’s Mac interface. It never came to be, so I started working on something that would be similar. A few hours later, iAqua was born.

Currently I’m releasing beta1. It’s NOT complete. What I’ve done is taken iPox, replaced some buttons and a few other interface elements. I do not have all the items themed. Really, this is just the very beginning. Current issues:

• Not all large toolbar buttons are themed.
• I don’t have any small toolbar buttons done.
• No testing has been done on anything but Mac. However it should work on Windows and Linux just fine.
• Lots and lots of elements aren’t themed and still match iPox.

Even with all that in mind, you can download iAqua today and play around with it. Lots of work is yet to be done, but so far, I’m really liking it.

- iAqua 0.3beta is out!