Apple Aqua Appearance I created an Aqua Appearance file. Will you add it to your collection of Appearance files? No, sorry. At least several people have created very realistic Aqua Appearances, but Haxial cannot add them to the collection because Apple has a history of threatening legal action against people who make or distribute Aqua appearances/themes/skins. Please do not send your Aqua Appearance file to Haxial. But I bought a Mac and am using MacOS X, so shouldn't I be allowed to use Aqua appearances? Ask Apple! Haxial does not pretend to understand Apple. If you want an answer to this question, you will have to ask Apple. Furthermore, Haxial is not going to spend any further time or resources investigating or challenging the legality of this matter because it is simply not worth it. All this fuss over a mere appearance. Really, it is ridiculous, it is only an insignificant appearance. There are plenty of much better looking appearances to choose from, so why not use one of those instead? Whatever the reasons, the end result is that Apple does not want Aqua appearances/themes being distributed, and Haxial has no interest in challenging this. But you have a Windows XP appearance in the collection! Because Microsoft is not nazi about the Windows XP appearance -- they do not send anyone threats about XP themes. Maybe because they realize that it is free advertising for them. Quotes about Past Legal Threats: Here are some quotes in relation to Apples history of threating people who distribute Aqua appearances/themes/skins. Apple rattles lawyers at DesktopX over Aqua By: John Lettice Posted: 02/02/2001 at 12:23 GMT Apple's notorious legal eagles have moved on skinning outfit Stardock, whose DesktopX is deemed to be a little too close to MacOS X's Aqua. According to a Stardock newsgroup announcement made by company president Brad Wardell yesterday, Apple has asked for the removal of "anything that even remotely looks like Aqua. "This ranges from screenshots to even themes or DesktopX objects that can even remotely be considered inspired by Aqua." [...] (from The Register.) Apple Still Says No To Aqua-Like Themes Posted by timothy on Thursday September 27, 2001, @09:48PM from the why-not-let-people-flatter-you dept. JoFo writes: "Eric Yang, creator of several Aqua-like themes and skins for GTK+, KDE, Mozilla, gkrellm, and others, was forced by Apple to take down all Aqua-related projects on his web site. It appears they went to his employer as a way to strong-arm him. He writes on his web site 'I went to Apple to test cocoa for Mac OS X 10.1, and found a drag and drop problem with NSPopUpButtonCell. They didn't even pay me for my effort, yet they try to shut down my project. Isn't that ironic?'" Apple seems at least to be consistent in objecting to nearly any non-Apple project that reminds the company of Aqua, so maybe this was just a matter of time. (from Slashdot.) Apple legal shuts down Aqua skin for Netscape Friday, September 28, 2001 @ 3:15am Apple legal has shut down Eric Yang's project for developing an Aqua skin for Mozilla and Netscape 6, as noted by a MacNN reader: "Eric Yang from developing an Aqua skin for Mozilla and Netscape 6. Although this skin needed work, it was the only aqua skin on the web (as far as I know). Moreover, due to the fact that Mozilla /Netscape 6 was open source, we very well could've seen this ship with future versions of Mozilla and Netscape 6 for OS X. Currently OS X builds of Mozilla and Netscape 6 have NO support for the Aqua UI. I would advise emailing Apple to complain about this. I know I will." (from MacNN.) Alternative GUIs for Computers [...] Alternative "skins" are especially popular in the Linux community, but are available for Windows (WinAqua, etc.), the Mac (e.g., Kaleidoscope) and other systems. One author, who re-uploaded revised "Aqua skin" graphics after modifying them in an effort to comply with Apple's demands found that change wasn't enough for Apple's legal team, which again threatened the author of the Mac OS X GUI lookalike "skin" with a lawsuit over its "Aqua"-like look and feel. BetaNews and MacWeek have additional details. (from The Technozone.) What, Aqua Without Quartz Extreme?! If you thought that Aqua requires an advanced rendering engine with a glitzy marketing name like "Quartz Extreme", then apparently that is incorrect, as evidenced by the people who have successfully created quality Aqua appearances for Haxial programs. Yes, Aqua can be produced using the same simple methods as all the other appearances. Maybe this is the real reason why Apple does not want people making Aqua appearances (despite the free advertising) -- it reveals that, oh, Aqua is not really advanced at all, and the "Extreme" in "Quartz Extreme" is actually referring to Extreme Marketing.