I realized over the past weekend that iPox Aqua was 90% the same as iPox.  And since iPox has been updated for Firefox 3, iPox Aqua shouldn’t take to much time.  So I’ve updated it.

iPox Aqua has the same style and feel as iPox, with a bit more colorful buttons and brighter blues.

Now I think I have only 3 more to update.

Theming Firefox has its good and it’s bad times.  Yes, it’s a lot of work for no money, but making people happy is something I like to do too.  And it appears that, according to Mozilla’s stats, I’m making a lot of people happy with my themes.

Check out these stats!

Miint
Total downloads since April 8th 2007: 234,303
Active Daily Users on Wednesday September 3rd: 35,425

PinkHope
Total downloads since January 29th 2007: 530,214
Active Daily Users on Wednesday September 3rd: 80,814

iPox
Total downloads since January 4th 2006: 1,479,462
Active Daily Users on Wednesday September 3rd: 79,518

I love to create Firefox themes, make addons and lots of freebees that others often enjoy.  I do this on my free time and love to see people enjoy them.  But some days, I’m ready to throw in the towel.

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.

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.

If you’ve ever wanted a good Firefox theme to match the look of your Mac a bit more, there are lots of developers out there trying to make this happen.

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.

iPox has spun off a new version with brighter blues and all new buttons. It’s called iPox Aqua and it’s for those that like iPox, but want just a bit more kick out of the theme.

Thanks to BitBox for the base buttons that started this re-work and thanks to you all for making iPox such a huge success.

And this is just the beginning, in the upcoming weeks I plan on helping everyone create their own version of iPox. Or, if you really excel in my tutorials, you can create your own theme. So stay tuned for that.