Question: what initially attracts you to an operating system?
Answer: eyecandy of course :D

Question 2: what is one of the major advantages of Linux?
Answer: customization

Question 3: what would attract more people to Linux?
Answer: an application that lets you easily customize every aspect of the Graphical User Interface

yes yes i know that you can make your own skins but realistically most people dont know how to write a gtkrc (or metacity theme etc etc..) and dont have the patience to learn, and yes i do know that you can download a whole range of skins and themes from places such as www.gnome-look.org. The point I am trying to make however is that its all fine and well to download a nice theme but in order for the Linux experience to be truly personal the end user must be able to customize the look of their system with ease the way that they want it, not just looking through a site and getting the best theme they could find. Its almost like cooking- the food that you cook yourself always seems to taste better than other peoples.

Now when I talk about an application that would customize every aspect of the GUI I'm talking about every aspect. Take the close window button for example, the user would have the option to change the shape, texture, glow, shadows, position, colour, gradients, transparency (possibly through integration with beryl or compiz) even how matte/glossy it would be, they could even have the option of importing a custom pixmap if they were a bit of a dab in photoshop (or the GIMP- whatever tickles your fancy). When the user was finished customizing their skin they could upload it to the web so other people could download it and modify it a little (or a lot) or use it for inspiration on their own themes. The best part is that they could do all this without seeing a snippet of code.

So let me know what you think guys- is it a good/bad idea, is it realistic?