I've only ever used Red Hat 8.0 for a short while, but it left a very strong lasting impression.

Here's what should be noted.

Bluecurve is a theme. Similar to XMMS/Winamp or Mozilla/Netscape skins, or Windows(9x/ME/XP) themes.

Bluecurve is unique (so far) in that it includes GNOME, KDE, Metacity, GTK+, and XMMS parts. It it also an icon theme, using Red Hat developed icons.

Remember, themes generally only work for the component they are designed for. So a GTK+ theme won't change things in KDE, and a KDE theme won't affect GNOME apps.

Red Hat say "We're not trying to create a 'third user interface,'" Instead, the theme is aimed at "a consistent look and feel which is? 'polished' and more '3D.'" "We didn't want to use just GNOME and get KDE users upset. We didn't want to use just KDE and get GNOME users upset. Instead, we combined the two, and got everyone upset," they quipped.

Red Hat has created a "KDE-like theme for GNOME, and a GNOME-like theme for KDE," said Brian Stevens, Red Hat's senior director of engineering. Users can install either GNOME, KDE, or both GUIs.

With the KDE default configuration, customers will get "mainly KDE apps." With the GNOME default configuration, they'll get "mainly GNOME apps." Customers installing both KDE and GNOME, though, will be able to pick and choose from among all apps included in the package, Stevens said.

"We've also worked on things like the menus and toolbars in GNOME and KDE, to make them more uniform," according to Stevens.

You can see some good screenshots , , and .

If you use Gentoo, you can type

emerge redhat-artwork

and get the Bluecurve theme.

BlueCurve was a company that made "Internet infrastructure planning software" that was bought by RedHat in 2000.