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François Vogelweith is the author of zgegblog, a site that maintains a collection of great GNOME themes (you can see screenshots of the themes and some more info but in French, on his website). Balanzan (translated: Balance) is one of its most popular creations, a very comprehensive theme based on Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope, which contains a wallpaper, logon theme, Emerald theme, controls and icons.

On his website there are the nine themes so far, all with very exotic names, usually some variation in colors and shapes. Most themes even come with a AWN themes.

For helping Ubuntu users, these themes are also available in .DEB packages and there is also a Launchpad repository that you can add so that you can install any of themes (installation command between the brackets after you have added the Ubuntu repository, see below):

* Balanzan ( sudo apt-get install balanzan-theme )
* Infinity ( sudo apt-get install infinity-theme )
* Wild shine ( sudo apt-get install wild-shine-theme )
* Exotic ( sudo apt-get install exotic-theme )
* Tropical ( sudo apt-get install tropical-theme )
* Step into Freedom ( sudo apt-get install step-into-freedom-theme )
* Bamboo Zen ( sudo apt-get install bamboo-zen-theme )
* Ubuntu sunrise ( sudo apt-get install ubuntu-sunrise-theme )
* Aqua Dreams ( sudo apt-get install aquadreams-theme )
* Show Time ( sudo apt-get install showtime-theme )
* Orange ( sudo apt-get install orange-theme )
* Ellana ( sudo apt-get install ellanna-theme )
* Airlines ( sudo apt-get install airlines-theme )

To add the repository, go to Administration -> Software Sources -> Third Party Software and add these 2 lines:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/bisigi/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/bisigi/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

Before updating the package list you have to add the keys by running the following command in a terminal:
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 881574DE

Then update the package list:
sudo apt-get update


If you wish to install all the themes with one command, run this in a terminal:
sudo apt-get install zgegblog-themes


Update 1: François has released yet another great theme called Showtime (click for details)

Update 2: The themes are now also available for Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala and Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx. To add the Karmic and Lucid repository, paste this in a terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bisigi


Update3: there are now 12 Gnome themes in the Bisigi project. They can all be found in the same repository (post updated).

Update 4: another theme has been added to the Bisigi project and in my optinion this is the best theme created by François: Airlines.

[via genbeta]