My desktop lacks sparkles, silliness, and a general evocation of _fun_. I've been wondering why, and came to the conclusion that the culprit is macOS itself. At the moment, my computer desktop looks like this:
Besides the (temporary) mess---game screenshots I still need to archive and a few papers I dumped on there---That's very much _not_ that different compared to the screenshot I took when I was about to throw out the old 2012 MacBbook Air; see my earlier article [desktop screenshots of olde](/post/2020/11/desktop-screenshots-of-olde/). I cheated a little by including Obsidian since that comes with custom themes.
Take a moment to glance over [my old desktops from 2004](/post/2020/11/desktop-screenshots-of-olde/) when I was still running Linux/FreeBSD/WinXP. All those OSes had something in common: it was easy to change a window manager, and thus a theme. Even in Windows, this was easy: a lot of talented DeviantArt folks created dedicated themes that were easy to install. Remember _Windows 95 Plus! Desktop Themes_? The mouse pointer that became a buzzing bee---or was it a wasp?---(jungle theme) or a painting (Da Vinci theme), or a magnifying glass (spooky investigation theme)? It's even possible to transform [Windows 10 to inject a Win95 Plus! vibe](https://www.pcgamer.com/windows-95-theme-for-windows-10/).
On Winodws, I've used [WindowBlinds](https://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/) for years, and amazingly, it's still around for Windows 10 and 11!
On \*NIX, I ran [Fvwm](https://www.fvwm.org/), which is extremely customizable but by default extremely ugly. And then [Xfce](https://xfce.org/) came along. But what stands out is that when you search for "macOS theme", you get all kinds of results that help you transform your \*NIX WM or Windows environment into a macOS clone. I distinctly remember trying to emulate the big and then cool looking Mac Doc icons and zoom animations on Fvwm.
But now, I want to do the other way around! Where is the Shapeshifter or [ThemePark](https://www.geekspiff.com/software/themepark.1.html) Mac software for OSX 12+? All I found was a dicey GitHub project called [PaintCan](https://github.com/MacEnhance/PaintCan) and a theme [called Siro](https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/system-theme-siro-for-monterey.2352689/) on MacRumors---which is incomplete because suddenly we have to design both a light and dark mode.
MacOS---being it Montery or v13, Ventura---is _boring_. It's dull. The red, orange, and green circles make me yawn. It's too clean. I want custom icons, custom handle bars, silly [system dock apps](https://www.dockapps.net/category/system) like `wmbubble` or Gnome's BubbleMon, a duck on water that visualizes CPU and memory load. [BubbleMon for OSX](https://walles.github.io/bubblemon/) exists but of course doesn't compile on ARM. I don't care for a boring stocks or weather app from Apple. Somewhere along the lines of incremental OS updates and standardization, we have lost the possibility to express ourselves. Even all those Gnome-powered default Ubuntu installations I see at work all look alike. Boring.
One of the problems is of course the nature of a commercial OS like Apple's: it's closed source and leaves little wiggle room to tinker with. Apple Scripts doesn't alleviate that. I appreciate automation tools, but it doesn't let me color my window title bars in bright green. To me, contemporary macOS feels arrogant: it wears its posh iconic design with too much pride and refuses to let others in. Granted, since OSX 12, "General" settings improved by a large margin, allowing users to set accent and highlight colors and light/dark appearances.
Even the file manager, Finder, is getting on my nerves. I've discovered [alternatives](https://www.macgasm.net/software/file-manager-mac/) I still need to try out, but so far, all of this is making me think of moving back to a \*NIX environment. Where tinkering was fun---and above all, possible. I know I switched to macOS because I didn't have time to tinker anymore, and I probably still don't, but still. The problem is that I don't want to give up the vastly superior battery life and screen quality, and performance/ease of use of the ARM-M1 chip...
Addendum, 17 Oct.: Luke reached out and has this to say about customizing:
> I struggle with distraction, and the boringness and constraints of macOS is an advantage for me. I spent so much time theming Linux before I switched. I want the OS to fade into the background while I work.
Good call, I haven't thought about that! Although there is more than enough distracting software installed on every macOS---how about a browser...
